Inner Beauty
by shaecarcar
Summary: Bella Swan is new in town. She doesn't know or TRUST anyone other than Charlie, and Jacob. What happens when a certain, Edward Cullen, shows her, her true inner beauty? Will she love him or leave him? AH Canon-Pairing. I don't own Twilight.
1. Chapter 1

**Edward's POV**

I woke up to the sound of a blaring alarm clock. I struggled to open my eyes to the bright sunlight emitting from my window. When I finally found the strength to open my eyes, I groaned at the sight. The clock alarm blinked 7:45 a.m. Time for yet another day in boring Forks, Washington.

My family and I moved to Forks a few years back. My mother, Esme, wanted a change in scenery and we all agreed. So we decided to pack up our old lives in Chicago and move to the rainy, dreary place named Forks. It's not that I hated Forks because I didn't. I just wished for some sort of excitement in it. Or someone who could make it exciting for me. Everyone in my family had a mate, except me. I try not to dwell on the fact that I'm the only single family member left, but too be completely honest, its hard sometimes. To see everyone all lovey-dovey with their other half, and to be singled out.

My parents, Carlisle and Esme Cullen, have been together for longer than I can count and are still crazy about each other. I see extreme love in their eyes every time they look at one another. My brother, Emmett Cullen, had a girlfriend named Rosalie Hale. She had icy blonde hair with icy cold blues eyes to match. Most guys worshiped the ground she walked on, Emmett included. But the thing that made Emmett different was that she loved him back... a lot, there was no doubting that. No matter how bitchy Rosalie could be, Emmett always found a way soften her up a bit, which is why I think she loved him, though she'd never admit it.

My pixie of a sister, Alice Cullen, also found the love of her life, no surprise there. She was deeply in love with none other than Jasper Hale. Jasper was Rosalie's cousin, and Alice's soul mate, apparently. When looking about their relationship, I always think about the saying, "Opposites attract." You couldn't find two people more different than them. Alice was very spunky, energetic, and for lack of a better word, loud. Jasper, on the other hand, was laid back, quiet, and reserved. When they first started dating a couple years ago, I thought they wouldn't last for more than two weeks. I thought Alice would get tired of him, and move on. But that never happened, and they've been together ever since.

So that just leaves me, Edward Cullen. Or better known as the 7th wheel. I never told my family how I truly felt because I didn't want them to show pity on me, but I think they always knew. I've always been a strong person, not just physically but also emotionally. I don't like showing weakness because people can hurt you that way. Of course, I'm not a tyrant. I have a heart. Most people just don't see it, other than my family.

Once I got done getting ready for school, I walked downstairs to my waiting family. Everyone was in the living room talking amongst themselves. I coughed to make them aware of my presence.

"Hey Edward!" sang Alice.

"Good Morning, Dear. Did you sleep well?" Esme said softly.

"Yea, I slept pretty good," I said.

Suddenly, I felt a hand connect to my back with a pretty big _bang!_ I looked over to see none other than Emmett. He tossed me a couple bagels, since I hadn't had anything to eat this morning and yelled, "Time for school, bro!"

After a few more minutes of quiet talking with the family and I finished my bagels; Alice, Emmett & I all piled up in my silver Volvo C30, and drove off for school. Once we arrived, we stepped out and hurried over to Rosalie's red BMW. Once we got there, Alice threw herself into Jasper's waiting arms, and Rosalie walked over to Emmett and gave him a kiss. Instead of hearing whispers about us, and how "perfect" we all looked (which should be old news by now, but obviously not), I heard whispers about... Isabella Swan? Apparently, we had a new student. I saw a red truck, I'd never seen before, maybe that was Isabella's car. I heard the first bell ring, signaling that we had 5 minutes to get to class, so I quickly said goodbye to my friends and hurried off to class. I wasn't a nerd or anything, but if I was late one more time this semester, I would get suspended, which is not something I would like to explain to my parents.

**Bella's POV**

Forks, Washington. Nothing really interesting has happened here so far, but it's also my first day so I guess I shouldn't expect something exciting just yet. I moved from Arizona to live with my father Charlie Swan. Although I love my mother, Renee Dwyer, she was newly married to Phil Dwyer. They seemed happy together, and I didn't want to stand in the way of her happiness, so I decided to live with my father.

I woke up at 7:20 a.m, which was a little earlier than usual, but I had to go to school earlier to get my schedule. I took a shower and used my favorite strawberry shampoo, it always relaxed me, so I never changed it. Once I got out the shower, I dried off and picked out my outfit for the day. It consisted of: black skinny jeans with rips all over the front, a black long sleeved shirt with the words, "Just Me..." on the front in red, and my trusty high top black converses. When I finished dressing, I went back into the bathroom to do my makeup. I put on black eye liner, with black eyeshadow on the outside of my lid for a smokey-eye effect. For my lips, I just decided to put on clear chap stick, my lips were always pink, borderline red, no matter what I did anyway. I took out my blow dryer and quickly ran through my long brown hair with it, so it was just barely damp, and tied it into a ponytail. Then I teased the entire ponytail to when I finally became satisfied with it.

I'm wouldn't consider myself Gothic, I just happen to like black. And I just didn't like showing my skin, it was extremely pale, so I figured the more I covered up, the better. I went downstairs to the kitchen to fix myself some cereal. Charlie had already gone to the station because he was the Cheif of Police. He worked 80% of the time, when he wasn't working he was either sleeping, watching baseball, or out fishing with his best friend Billy Black, father of my best friend in this town Jacob Black. Jacob and I have been close friends ever since we were young. He always cared about me, and it was just easy being with him. We never liked each other more than just best friends, even now. Although, we were each others first kiss when I was 8 and he was 6 almost 7. We were just curious, but after it was done, it was just too weird so we laughed and just went back to coloring like nothing happened.

I looked down at my phone and noticed I had 2 text messages. One was from Jacob it read:

_Hope you have a great first day! Sorry I can't be there to protect you, but you've never needed me to so I have faith that you won't need me today! I love you Bells! Call me when you get home today, ok?_

I quickly responded with:

_You are right, Mr. Black. Why do you always feel to need to protect me? It's super sweet, but super unnecessary lol. I'll totally call you back today! Love ya too :)_

Jacob went to a different school than I did, but today I kind of wished he hadn't. Not that I needed his protection or anything, I just missed him is all. I could always count on him to make me feel better or make me laugh, I gotta love him for that.

The second message was from Charlie, it read:

_Hey Bells, have a wonderful day today. I'll be home kinda late today, but I'll bring back a pizza!_

I replied back:

_Thanks Charlie and OK!_

I finished my cereal, and hopped in my red Chevy truck, which was a gift from Charlie, and drove off to school. When I arrived, there were only a few people in the parking lot, it was still early. Once I stepped out, it was so quiet you could hear a pen drop. Even though there were only a few people, I expected to hear SOME noises. I looked up to see everyone staring at me. It made me a bit uncomfortable, but I didn't let it show. I walked towards the front building and then the whispers started.

I heard some like:

"Is she new here? She's so pretty!" said one girl.

"Oh wow, she's hot! What's her name?" said one guy.

"Seems a little Gothic, but I'll still smash her!" said another guy. Ugh, not attractive!

Once I got to the front office, this nice lady handed me my schedule and told me which way my first class was. I thanked her and then decided it was still a little too early to go to class so I decided to walk outside and sit on the bench and read. I kept getting distracted by all the whispers about me, seriously people in this town needed to get a life, so I put in my headphones and turned my music on.

About 10 minutes later, I heard a bell, I guess that's my cue to go to class. I took out my headphones and pocketed them. I took out my schedule and headed to my first class. I found my classes pretty easily, but all through class people would either stare at me or whisper AND stare at me. After a couple dozen times I started glaring back at them. It's not that I was a mean person because I truly was not, it's just extremely annoying when people look at you and don't say anything.

One girl with black hair turned to look at me again, and I blew up.

"What?" I yelled.

"M-me?" said the girl.

"Yes..." I said, impatiently.

"I'm sorry, you're just the first new student we've had in this school for a while, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable," she said.

"Oh, well it's okay. I'm sorry for blowing up like that, but when people continue to stare at you and you have no idea why, it gets pretty frustrating," I said. I felt kind of bad for yelling at her because she seemed nice, maybe we could be friends.

I stuck my hand out and said, "I'm Isabella, but I prefer Bella."

She smiled and said, "I'm Angela!" and shook my hand. The rest of the class went by pretty fast. Angela invited me to sit with her and her boyfriend, Ben, for lunch. I told her I'll think about it. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind, but I also maybe wanted to sit by myself today. The bell rang, and I quickly picked up my books and went straight to Biology, hoping to get a few minutes of peace and quiet.

I walked into Biology, and saw that practically no one was there except for a few people. I looked at my schedule and saw that my teacher's name was Mr. Banner.

So I called out, "Mr. Banner," I saw a head pop up but didn't care enough to see who it was.

A middle-aged man came over to me and said, "Hello there, you must be Isabella, our new student! We'll be watching a video today in class so you won't need to catch up, and you can sit next to Edward Cullen in the back of the class. That will be your permanent seat for the rest of the year."

"Thanks and I prefer to be called Bella," I said as kindly as I could manage, but seriously, I felt like I had said that a thousand times today.

"Oh, well excuse me, Bella," Mr. Banner said.

I smiled and turned to go sit in my seat, but stopped in my tracks because... I think my heart jumped when I looked at the most attractive boy I've ever seen in my life.

Once I realized how stupid I must have looked, I walked to my seat and tried not to smile by realizing I got to sit next to him for the rest of the year. I took my seat, and put my stuff on my desk, and then took my book out to read.

"Hey, you must be the new girl... Isabella?" said a smooth voice.

I turned to my right to look at the beautiful boy who interrupted my reading, not that I minded at all. "Bella," I corrected him.

"Sorry, Bella. That must be pretty annoying to have to correct everyone who says your name wrong." He said.

"Kind of, but I'm the one who likes to be called Bella, rather than my actual name. So I guess I have to pay for it," I smiled, then continued, "Um... what's your name?"

"Edward Cullen," he replied.

"Well its nice meeting you, Edward Cullen," I said.

"Likewise, so what are you doing here so early? Class doesn't start for another 5 minutes. I thought a new student, like yourself, would still be wandering the halls, looking for the Biology room," he said.

"Well, this school isn't that big. My old school in Arizona was almost twice as big as this school. Plus, IF I were to ever get lost, I'm not an idiot, I'll ask somebody," I said, "And I like getting to classes early, I'm not a nerd, but I do like to read, and I can't really do that with a room full of loud kids who seem to love staring at you," I replied, while playing with my black painted fingernails.

"Hmm... I remember when my family and I were new. Same thing happened to us. Still does sometimes. Don't worry, they'll get used to you and eventually all the whispers and stares will fade away. Well... depending on how interesting or attractive you are, but I think you better get used to it because you seem to be VERY interesting... and attractive..." He trailed off.

I looked up from my fingers to see him staring at me, smiling. I blushed, but I wasn't sure if he was a player or not so I decided to test him, "You say that to everyone?"

"No, only you," he replied, staring at my blushing cheeks.

"Well, Mr. Cullen you seem like a player, how do you feel about that?" I said, while staring at him straight in the eye.

Something flashed in his eyes, and instead showed a bit of... sadness. Why?

"I'll... um... I'll have you know that I don't have a girlfriend and haven't had one for quite sometime. I don't fall for just anyone, and it's way more than just physicality to me," he said, kind of harshly.

I suddenly felt kind of bad for accusing him of being a player because he seemed to have taken it to heart, "Hey, I'm sorry. I was just kidding. I didn't mean it," I went to touch his arm but when I did I felt a shock like electricity flowing from my hand to the rest of my body, it felt... good... amazing even.

He seemed to feel it too because when I touched him, his eyes widened and he looked down to where I was still touching his arm. "It's cool, people seem to have given me that reputation, "The Player". I hate it, I try to be a gentlemen to a girl and they take it as something more. It never is though," he said while looking into my eyes.

"Well... you're hot. So of course they're going to want to spread the rumor of you being their boyfriend." I said honestly, I should've cared that I just told him I was attracted to him, but I didn't.

He chuckled, and I think I saw him blush! "Thank you, Bella. You are very beautiful too." Now it was my turn to blush.

Class started, and Mr. Banner turn the video as soon as everyone was seated so we couldn't continue our talk. All throughout the movie I could see Edward staring at me, instead of staring at the screen. It made me a little self-conscious, but I never told him to stop or looked his way. Truth is, I liked it, so I didn't want him to stop. I just wore the same small smirk all through the film.

**A/N: This is my first chapter ever! I never considered myself a writer, just a reader! But I'm trying something new here! Um...REVIEW?**


	2. Chapter 2

Edward's POV:

I heard someone enter the classroom, but figured it was just one of my everyday classmates. I was still thinking about why everyone was still talking about this new girl, Isabella. When we first moved here, the buzz was huge, but it's the same every time we go to a new school. What was so special about Isabella? While I was still contemplating, I heard a female voice call for Mr. Banner. I'd never heard this voice before, so I figured this much be the new girl. My head popped up and my eyes, almost instantly, widened.

The girl looked really, really good. She had extremely long brown hair. Even though, it was in a high ponytail, it almost reached her waist. She had glorious brown eyes, that looked deep enough to get lost in them. She was dressed entirely in black, but she didn't seem like the Gothic type. I spent minutes studying the beautiful girl before me. Suddenly, she started walking in my direction. I realized she was going to be my lab partner, seeing as this was the last seat available. Once she sat down, the air was hinted with a light strawberry and... Freesia scent. I asked her if she was the new girl, Isabella. She responded that she preferred to be called Bella. Before I knew it, we were in a full blown conversation.

I told her I thought she was attractive, and I definitely meant it. She then told me that she thought I was a player. Once those words left her mouth, I felt a wave of sadness wash over me, though I tried to hide it. So many people judge me, and I didn't want Bella to do the same. I wanted her to know me as I am. Not as someone, people thought I was. I thought all females should be respected no matter what, so why am I labeled as "The Player"? I would make sure Bella didn't think of me that way.

All too soon, Mr. Banner started the film that we would be watching today, meaning we couldn't finish our talk. But I promised myself, it wouldn't be our last. All through the video, I kept staring at Bella. Believe me, I tried not to, but it was so hard! She's... stunning. She wore the same smirk all through the video. Maybe it was because she could literally feel my eyes bore into the side of her head.

When the film finally ended we had 10 minutes of free time, so I decided to start up another conversation with her, but she beat me to it.

"So what's there to do in this town?" She asked.

"Depends on what you like. If you're anything like my sister, Alice, you could go shopping. There are some pretty cool shops in Port Angeles." I informed her.

"Thanks, but I'm not much of a shopper, to be hon-" Jessica cut her off.

"Hey Edward, I was wondering would you like to go on a date with me... Friday?" Jessica asked, while twirling a piece of her hair, trying to look sexy. "Oh hey Isabella," she mumbled.

Out the corner of my eye, I saw Bella cock one of her eyebrows, probably annoyed. "I'm sorry, Jessica. I have plans on Friday to..." I trailed off. I didn't really have plans, I just really did NOT want to go out with her.

Bella noticed my hesitation, and said, "Show me around town. I'm new here, so I don't really know where anything is. I'm sorry," she apologized, though I'm sure she didn't really mean it.

Jessica raised her eyebrows in surprised, and stared right at me. "Really?" She asked incredulously. "So what? You guys are dating now? Wow Edward! New record, I would say. This is Isabella's first day, and you're in her panties already! You're definitely advancing." She said smugly.

I saw red. "Jessica, you have no idea what the hell you're talking about. Her name is Bella, and I'm not trying to get into anyone's panties! Just because you're mad I rejected you a good 10 times, doesn't give you the right to act like a bitch!"

"Maybe she's just a bitch at heart..." Bella mumbled, while glaring madly at Jessica.

Jessica didn't seem to have heard Bella, "Whatever, Edward." Then she turned towards Bella. "I hope you know, the only reason he's even talking to you is for sex. Nothing else. So don't go around thinking your special because you're really, truly not!"

Bella stood up so she and Jessica were face to face. "And Jessica I hope you know, that I'm not stupid and I'm not a child! I know how to close my legs, unlike some people." She said while smiling. "Do not talk to me like you have no sense!" With that, she picked up her stuff, and left.

Jessica and I stared off in the direction Bella just went, in awe. Then the bell rang. I picked up all of my stuff, hastily. Once I got out the class I started running down the hallway, in hopes of finding Bella and apologizing to her for what Jessica said. I found her outside on a bench, reading.

The wind was slightly blowing causing her hair to whip around her. That only enhanced her beauty. A strand of her hair blew over her face. She went to push it back, but I was quicker. When I secured the hair behind her ear, she looked up at me and smiled. Then, she motioned for me to sit down next to her.

"Are you okay?" I asked worriedly, while taking the seat next to her.

She quietly chuckled, "I'm fine. I'm worried about you. What she said was definitely over the line. I seriously wanted to slap her," she sighed and put the book down.

"Yea, Jessica has liked me for some time now, but when I rejected her the first couple of times, I think she got discouraged. Then you showed up, and she felt threatened." I said, honestly.

"Why? It's not like we're dating, or will ever date!" She ranted angrily.

I was disappointed, and I think it showed. Bella seemed amazing. I knew I wanted to be in a real relationship with her, but maybe she didn't. That did not mean I would stop trying though.

"Do you have a boyfriend or something?" I asked curiously.

"Well no, but I'm not girlfriend material," she stated honestly.

"Why do you think that?" I put emphasis on the word "think" because I knew it wasn't true.

She smiled sadly at me, "I just know. Trust me, some things just don't work, and me being in a relationship is one of them," she said while playing with her fingers.

I took one of her hands in mine, aware of the electricity that seems to flow through us when we touched, "You don't see yourself clearly, do you? Would you lik-" The bell rang, interrupting me. She stood up and gathered her stuff.

"Would you like to sit with my friends and I at lunch?" I asked hopefully.

"Um... I don't think I can. I'm sorry," she said unhappily.

"Well, would you like to come over today? My sister is dying to me you."

"I'll think about it. If I change my mind, I'll call you. Okay?" She went and took out her phone. "Your number?" She asked.

We exchanged numbers and quickly took off for our next classes, so we wouldn't be late. I was still a little giddy from getting Bella's number and knowing she just might come over my house this afternoon. When I came in class and sat in my seat, I was still wearing the same silly grin. My brother, Emmett and I had Math together, and he noticed my happy mood.

"What happened, bro? Finally got some?" He said, while laughing.

I sighed, "No Emmett, I did not 'get some' as you so tastefully put it. I just finally met someone I could have a real conversation with." I said.

He seemed to buy it, but not before muttering, "...I guess he's about to get some..."

* * *

**A/N: Writing is pretty easy when I have a clear vision of where I want to go in the chapter. So what do you think Bella should do WHEN she goes over Edward's house? I've already decided I wanted Bella to go over his house...but what should they do?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Bella's POV:**

I just barely made it to my next class without being late. The teacher gave me a glare for almost being late on my first day, but I was too happy to feel bad about it. Edward asked to have lunch with me! I felt horrible for saying I wasn't able to, but it was the truth. Angela had already asked me and it would be rude to decline her because she asked first. Plus, she seemed like a nice person.

He also asked if I wanted to come over his house. I really wanted to, not because I liked him (I was just attracted to him), but I didn't know him that well. I decided if I felt like going over his house later, then I would. Plain and simple.

The teacher continued to ramble on about the Civil War, but I could care less. I'd already learned all of this information in my old school in Arizona. So I decided to sketch. Sketching was one of my all time favorite hobbies, besides reading. I was pretty good, if I do say so myself. My favorite things to sketch were people and places. They involved so much detail and shading, that it could keep you occupied for hours, and you never get bored. I took out my sketch book and pencil and stared out the window, to draw the parking lot, surrounded in green. Not the best landscape ever, but it'd be enough to keep me busy.

When I was halfway done with my drawing, I felt someone staring at me. I finished drawing the tall overhead lights, contained inside the parking lot, then looked up to see some guy staring at me. He had blue eyes and cropped blonde hair. Overall, he was average. Nothing special. I cocked my eyebrow at him. He continued to stare at me; he didn't seem to care that I caught him staring.

I flipped over to a new sheet of drawing paper and wrote:

_Is there a reason you're staring at me?_

I raised the paper up so he would be able to read it. His eyes moved from my face to the paper. I watched as his eyes scanned over the paper, and he smirked. He pulled out a sheet of his own and wrote quickly. He lifted it up so I could read what he wrote, it said:

_Um... not really..._

That vexed me a little. I'm a very blatant person, meaning I do not like to "beat around the bush," as my dad would have said. So I wrote back:

_Say it!_

He read it quickly, and responded with:

_You're kind of pretty..._

I narrowed my eyes. It's not that I didn't appreciate the compliment, because I did. It was sweet, but couldn't he have just said that, instead of staring at me like a weirdo.

People these days...

I wrote back:

_Well thanks, but please stop staring at me. It's annoying._

He read my paper, and smiled, sheepishly. Then, he turned around in his seat, and never looked at me for the rest of the period. By the time the bell rang, I finished my drawing. It was pretty spot-on, and I was very proud. I always felt a sense of accomplishment when my drawings looked very similar to the real thing. I remember when I was in the 1st grade, I was given a blue freesia to draw. When I was done, we had to go up in front of the class and present it. When I walked to the front of the class and revealed my artwork, I heard the entire class gasp. At first, I thought they didn't like it, but I heard mumblings like:

"Wow it's pretty!" Gasped my friend, Victoria.

"Its cooler than the actual picture," said a boy named Aro, while coloring his picture.

"Amazing..." said my teacher, Ms. Volturi, her eyes full of shock and amazement.

Ever since then, I've been obsessed with drawing. One of the first things I did when I moved here was, of course unpack, and put up my drawings.

The boy who had been staring at me, walked over to my desk. I said a polite hello to him, but I just wanted him to quickly say what he had to say and move on.

"I'm sorry for staring at you earlier. It seems like my eyes have a mind of their own." He looked down at the table, instead of looking at me.

"Its okay..." I said, wishing he would be done soon.

"I'm Mike Newton, by the way. If you need any help with anything, you could ask me, okay?" He said nervously. Then, he ran out the room, without a reply from me.

Mike seemed like a nice boy, but too awkward for my liking. I shook my head to clear the weird conversation from my head and gathered my books. I headed for the cafeteria and walked through the double doors. My eyes scanned the room to look for Angela. I saw her sitting with another boy with glasses... Ben, I think. I walked over to them and put my books down. Angela looked up, and smiled when she realized it was me.

"Hey Bella! I'm so happy you decided to sit with us today. This is my boyfriend, Ben. Ben, this is Bella." She said cheerfully.

I looked at Ben, and suddenly knew why Angela liked him. He was pretty cute. I wasn't interested in him, of course. But he and Angela definitely made a sweet couple.

"Hey..." I trailed off. I was always uncomfortable when meeting most people. I never realized why, I guess it was just apart of my personality.

He smiled, encouragingly, as if he could sense my apprehensiveness. "Hello, Bella. It's nice to meet you." He said.

I told them I'd be right back after I got my lunch. While I stood in line, I got bored, so I played with my hair. "We meet again," said a voice I knew all too well for the short time that I've known him.

"Well hello, Edward." I said, without looking behind me to see if I was correct or not.

He chuckled, "How'd you know it was me?" He said, amused.

I looked up at him and smiled slightly, "I don't know... wild guess?"

"So you're sitting with Angela and Ben?" He said, while looking over at them.

"Yeah, Angela is in one of my classes, she seemed really nice, so why not?"

"Yea, she is. We don't talk that much, but I just get that vibe from her." He said, looking at the hair I still had in my hand.

We continued to talk while we got our lunch, and then went our separate ways. I sat down at our table, while Angela and Ben studied my every move.

"Um... what did I do?" I asked, awkwardly.

Angela laughed, while Ben smiled. "Nothing Bella, we just saw you and Edward talking in line." Angela said. She looked over my shoulder, and I followed her gaze, which landed on Edward and his family. I must admit, they were an interesting group. All extremely beautiful. I looked back at Angela, and raised my eyebrows.

"And...?" I said, waiting on her to continue.

"And you guys seemed really... engrossed in each other." Angela said honestly, while Ben nodded.

"He's my friend," I didn't really get the big deal.

"Okay, excuse me, but I'm really interested in Psychology. That has to deal with people's behavior. So I love studying people. And, to be completely honest, I don't think Edward considers you a 'friend' like you do," she said, as she was talking she would rotate between playing with her salad, and looking over my shoulder.

"And why is that?" I asked curiously.

"Look back over your shoulder again and you'll see why." She smiled, and took Ben's hand in hers.

So I did. Once again, I saw the Cullens. But this time I focused on Edward. He was staring at me intently, while running his fingers through his hair. Once he realized that I caught him staring, he quickly looked down, embarrassed. I turned back around and looked at Angela. She just smiled quickly and ducked her head to eat her salad.

I got an idea; it was time to have a little fun! I stood up and walked over to the Cullens' table, while Angela and Ben stared curiously at me. The Cullens all turned to face me, while Edward scratched his neck, awkwardly.

"Edward, is there a reason your staring at me?" I said softly, once I reached their table.

He turned beet red, and said, "Um... no, it's just..." He didn't seem to have been able to come up with an excuse.

A large, muscular guy saved him and said, "I guess he thinks you're extremely beautiful, and can't take his eyes off you."

"Emmett stop!" Edward yelled. _Oh so that's his name, good to know._

I walked over and sat next to Edward, while his eyes watched me.

"Do you really?" I said, with wide eyes. I purposely made my eyes big so that I could appear innocent.

"Well... sure?" he said, though it came out like a question.

"I'm extremely flattered, _Edward_..." I tried saying his name as seductively as possible. It seemed to have worked because his eyes got extremely wide.

I heard a soft laughter to my right and out the corner of my eye, I saw a short girl with shoulder-length black hair, laughing.

I smiled and focused on my prey. I scooted a little closer to Edward, and he noticed. "Do you really want me to come over today?" I said.

"Well, if y-you want t-to." Edward stuttered, while avoiding all eye contact and looking directly at his tray.

Emmett had his arm around a blonde-haired girl, and they both looked on the verge of laughing their heads off. The short girl was holding hands with a blonde-haired guy, and they were both laughing slightly. Time to bring it home!

I reached my hands up to Edward's bronze hair, and gently caressed it. His eyes closed slightly and a small sigh escaped from his lips. I leaned in to whisper in his ear, "Well, I want to..."

Once I saw his eyes widen and his mouth open slightly, I knew my job was done. So I gently caressed his hair once more. Then, I slowly stood up and walked away. When I reached Angela's table, I saw that she was laughing so hard tears formed in her eyes. Ben was silently laughing and clutching his stomach. I winked at both of them, then walked out of the cafeteria, heading to the library.

Game Over. Bella - 1. Edward - 0. That was fun. I just hoped Edward wouldn't feel bad about it later. I had to remind myself to tell him I was joking later, hopefully he wouldn't take it too seriously.

**Edward's POV:**

_What. Just. Happened?_


	4. Chapter 4

**Bella's POV:**

I spent the rest of my lunch hour in the library. The library was a good place to relax because it was quiet, and you were allowed to get lost in as many books as possible. The bell rang, and my shoulders slumped in disappointed. I was really hoping to finish the chapter before I had to go.

Once I picked up my books, and checked out the book I was reading, _Wuthering Heights_ by Emily Brontë, I rushed to my locker. I had one more class to go: Physical Education. I didn't really mind going to Gym because I loved running. It was a great way to exercise, and it was a healthy alternative to releasing pent up energy.

I was disappointed to find out I forgot to bring my gym clothes, so I couldn't participate in any activities. I walked in the girl's locker room, and set all my books in my gym locker, excluding the one I just checked out from the library. I picked up from where I left off, and was soon lost in the entrancing world of _Wuthering Heights_.

"Hey, Bella?" The voice startled me, and I accidentally dropped my book.

I looked up to find the same short girl who was sitting at Edward's lunch table today. She had black hair that went a little past her shoulders, and brown eyes. "Hey..." I trailed off, and pick up my book.

She stuck out her hand and said, "I'm Alice! Edward is my brother. What you did to him at lunch was extremely funny! I've never seen him so nervous," she chuckled.

She seemed nice, and I instantly liked her. I shook her hand and said, "Well, I got bored and he _was_ the one staring, so I decided to teach him that it's extremely rude to stare at people," I said, still laughing from the memory.

"So Edward tells me, and you too... kind of," she laughed, and continued, "that he invited you over to our house this afternoon?"

"Yeah, he did. I don't know if I'll go or not." She looked disappointed at the news.

"Why not? Please come!" She begged with huge puppy dog eyes.

"It's just I don't really know you guys all too well, and I still have some unpacking to do when I get home." I explained.

She waved her hand around and said, "Oh excuses, excuses. Your coming if I have to drag you there or not. Edward really wants you to come over our house today, and you are not going to disappoint him. Got it, Missy?" She said, while pointing her finger at me.

"Um... OK?" I was a little intimidated by her, even if she was small.

Her frown instantly changed into a bright smile, "Great!" Then her eyes trailed down my body, inspecting my outfit. "Why aren't you changing?"

"I forgot my clothes at home." Once again upset by the fact that I could be so oblivious.

"Oh! I have some extra clothes I keep just in case I decide to change my clothes! You could borrow some!" She pulled me up from my seat and dragged me over to her gym locker. I was still contemplating why she decided to bring several outfits if it was only for gym.

Alice rummaged through her locker for a total of 5 seconds. It was surprisingly organized. She pulled out black spandex tights, and a dark blue tight athletics tank top. She shoved them into my hands, and shooed me off to get dressed, but not before she gave me a pair of black running shoes. I told her I didn't need them, mumbled a thanks, and ran off to get dressed before she could force me into them.

Five minutes later, I was dressed in Alice's clothes and just finished tying my hair into a tight bun. My converses weren't really workout shoes, but I refused to take some of Alice's shoes too. I walked over to Alice's locker, and saw that she was text messaging someone. She looked up at me and instantly squealed. "I just knew it would fit you perfectly!" She said, while clapping her hands.

"Thank you, Alice. You didn't have to give me you're clothes." I said.

"Bella I have so many clothes, I can barely keep count. You can keep those, by the way." She said, while combing her hair, and putting it in a low ponytail.

"Thanks again... who were you text messaging?" I asked curiously.

"Oh! My boyfriend, Jasper! And Edward, I told him you were coming over today!" She waggled her eyebrows.

"Is Jasper that guy you were sitting with today at lunch?" I decided to ignore her actions.

"Yup! He has gym this period so you'll get to meet him! And my other brother, Emmett!"

The coach called us out of the locker room and onto the outside field. The boys were already out there, and I instantly recognized Alice's brother and boyfriend. Our coach told us to run around the track 5 times and start stretching. I told Alice we'll meet up after our run, knowing she'd want to run with her boyfriend, and she said OK.

I started running my first couple of laps pretty slowly. I didn't need to push my muscles just yet. When my adrenaline started pumping, I knew I could start running full speed. I pushed my muscles to their fullest extent, surpassing everyone in front of me, and even overlapping a few people.

I passed Alice and winked at her, while she stared at me in shock. I wondered what happened to make her look at me like that. I finished my laps before anyone was even close to being done, and decided to start stretching while my adrenaline was still pumping. A couple of minutes later, Alice showed up in front of me with her hands on her hips. After a couple of minutes of silence, I finally said, "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Really, Bella? Did you not just see yourself a couple minutes ago. I didn't know you could run that fast!" She practically yelled with excitement.

A blonde-haired boy and muscular boy came over to us, looking just as excited as Alice. "That was awesome!" Exclaimed the muscular boy. "I'm Emmett, by the way!" he said, and then pulled me into a bone crushing huge.

"Yea, you were amazing. I'm Jasper, Alice's boyfriend." He said, in a much softer way, and then put a comforting arm around Alice's shoulders.

"I'm Bella and thanks... I just like running is all." I said, while playing with my shirt.

"Hey, do you want to race? We could go 2 laps around the field?" Emmett said. His eyes were practically dancing with excitement.

I was always up for a challenge so I immediately agreed. Emmett looked like pretty stiff competition, and there weren't many people who could beat me in a race, other than Jacob of course, but he was twice my size! He said I only used that as an excuse every time I lost, which was very true, but I never admitted it.

Emmett and I walked to the beginning of the track. Alice stood in the middle of us, to signal when to start, while Jasper stood on the sideline with an amused smile on his face.

"Ready... set... GO!" Alice exclaimed.

I took off running at full speed, while thanking god that I stretched first. Emmett and I were neck and neck for the entire first lap. Once we hit the second lap, he starting sweating. I could tell he was getting tired and I could relate, especially at the rate we were going. The only difference was, my stamina was off the charts. I could run for days! That's an exaggeration of course, but it sometimes felt like that.

Halfway through our second lap, I pushed my legs even harder, though they were protesting not to. I surpassed Emmett easily, and felt a sense of pride when I passed the finish line, winning. I was breathing heavily, half from exhaustion and half from excitement. Emmett soon followed and rested his hands on his knees, while trying to catch his breath.

"Bella... that... amazing... your... f-fast.." He mumbled.

"Bella that was so cool! You might even be faster than Edward! You guys should race one day!" Alice said while waving her hands in the air.

Jasper's eyes widened at the thought of Edward and I racing. "You should!" He said, louder than I ever heard him speak before.

"I'm in. Just name the date, time, and place!" I said, still energized from the race.

We spent the rest of the class period goofing off and talking. I came to find out that I really did like them. Emmett was super loud but extremely funny. He had me on the floor, laughing my brains out. Jasper was a pretty laid back guy, but he seemed to understand how you were feeling at any given moment. Alice was a bubbly girl, and she was really easy to talk to. The conversations seemed to flow out effortlessly between us. I could tell we were all going to get along well.

We all left the gym, talking like we were the best of friends. Emmett was on my left, Alice was on my right, and Jasper was on her right. We decided I'd come over at 5, which gave me enough time to do my homework, call Jacob, and unpack some more.

We all went our separate ways to get our stuff from our lockers, but were meeting up at Alice's locker in 10 minutes to walk to the parking lot together. I grabbed my backpack, and stuffed my books in it. Once I got to Alice's locker, everyone was already there, talking.

"Bella, how much do you weigh?" Emmett asked, randomly.

"Um... I don't know. Why?" I wondered.

He didn't answer me, he only turned around and bent over, slightly. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Piggy back ride," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why...?" I asked again, hoping this time he'd actually answer.

"Well I've always wanted to give my little sister a piggy back ride, but Alice would never let me. And Rose says she doesn't want to chip a nail, so would you?" I learned that Rosalie was the blonde-haired girl Emmett was sitting with a lunch. She was also his girlfriend.

"Eh... why the hell not?" I said, while smiling.

I jumped on his back, and he responded, "Well? Aren't you going to get on?" He laughed, knowing I was already on his back.

"Ha-ha. Hilarious, Em." I said, sarcastically.

We walked out of the school building and into the parking lot, with me still perched on Emmett's back. They carpooled everyday in either Edward's Volvo, Alice's Porsche, Emmett's Jeep or Rosalie's BMW. Today, it was the Volvo and the BMW.

We walked over and Edward was leaning on his car, looking pretty damn good. His eyes trailed over everyone, briefly. First, Alice and Jasper. Then, Emmett. Finally, his eyes rested on me, and he smiled.

Rosalie was standing on the right of Edward looking at her reflection in a compact mirror.

"ROSIE!" Emmett yelled, while I laughed in his ear. She accidentally dropped it, startled. She looked up and smiled, amused.

Once we reached them, I hopped off of Emmett's back and he gave Rose a kiss. "Hey Bella, I'm glad you decided to come over." Edward said.

I laughed, and he stared at me curiously. "I didn't technically 'decide', I was threatened." I looked over at Alice, and she smiled at me, unashamed. Edward finally understood why I laughed, and chuckled. "But I would have came over anyway," I said quickly, hoping that he didn't think that I didn't want to come over.

He smiled at me. I yelled a goodbye to everyone and went to my truck, elated.

Once I got home, I decided to finish my homework. I didn't have to do much, just a few problems for Math. Charlie wasn't home yet, he was still working at the station. I finished my homework within 15 minutes and made myself a quick snack, which consisted of chips and a coke. I took my cell phone out and called Jacob, while eating.

He picked up on the third ring. "Hey, Bella!" He exclaimed.

"Hi, Jake. What's up?"

"Nothing much, still working on my homework. How was your first day?" He said.

"It was much more fun than I thought it would be. I met some really cool people, and I'm going over their house today." I said, while thinking about my new friends.

"So I'm being replaced?" He said in mock anger.

"Yup!" I joked. "Also, there are some really cute guys here. I don't know who to pick!" I enjoyed playing with Jake because he was so protective of me when he didn't need to be.

"Really? You better be joking!" He yelled. I heard some rummaging in the background, assuming that was just some paper for his homework.

I laughed out loud. "I'm kidding, _Dad_!"

"Bella, stop playing with my emotions." He laughed, so I was relieved to know he found it amusing too.

"I'm sorry, best friend-" I heard a boom in the background. "Jacob, what's going on over there!"

"Well... its kind of a... video game?" He said, ashamed.

I sighed, "Jacob, I love you and you are my best friend, but if you do not stop playing those video games and get back to your homework, I will come over there and hurt you!" I was over exaggerating of course, but I would certainly try. I considered Jacob my brother, instead of just a best friend, and I tried my hardest to look out for him at all times.

He laughed. "Bella, the thought of you trying to hurt me is extremely laughable."

"I know... but I'm only looking out for you, Jake."

"I know that, and I love you for it." He said softly.

"Okay, I have to go, but do your homework... or I'll find you." I laughed.

"Sure Bells. I'll try!"

When I got off the phone, I decided to take a quick shower before I headed over to the Cullen's house. I washed my hair and body in record time. I went to my closet to pick out what I was going to wear. Whenever I went out, I never dressed up, except for when I went to school. So I choose black tight sweatpants, and a white loose fitted graphic t-shirt. I grabbed my blow dryer, and ran through my hair with it. By the time I was done, my hair was pretty wavy, but at least it was dry. I grabbed some black Uggs and headed over to the Cullen's house.

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**A/N: Next chapter is when Bella finally goes to the Cullen's house! That'll be up on Saturday :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Edward's POV:

Once we got home, I went to my bedroom and decided to do my homework before Bella came. My room was simple. I had a king-sized bed, with a black and silver bedspread. My plasma screen TV was across from the bed. In the corner of my room, was my Yamaha keyboard. On the opposite side was my huge shelf of music, with a music system located next to it. My black dresser was next to my bed, with my ipod docking system on top of it.

I finished my homework within an hour and went downstairs to see what everyone else was up to. Jasper and Rosalie stayed over our house, like they do everyday. Emmett was sitting on the couch and playing a video game. Rosalie was situated on his lap, reading some fashion magazine. Jasper was sitting on the opposite side of the couch with Alice's feet plopped in his lap. Esme was in the kitchen, probably making dinner and listening to Jazz music like she does everyday around this time.

I sat down on the floor and leaned against the couch, deciding to play video games with Emmett to pass the time. We continued like that until we heard the doorbell ring. Alice squealed and ran to the door, revealing a comfortable-looking Bella. She was dressed in tight sweatpants, which showed off her leg muscle. Her white v-neck graphic shirt had the words, "Live Life in the Fast Lane," across the front, surrounded in different-colored splatter paint. She wore her hair down in waves which ended at her waist, and flowed beautifully every time she moved her head.

Alice ushered her inside, while chatting with her. Esme poked her head out the kitchen to see who arrived, and when she saw Bella, she smiled. "Oh Alice, is this the friend who is coming over today?" She asked.

"Yes mom, this is Bella!" She introduced. Even though Alice was adopted, she's been with us so long that she's comfortable enough to call Esme her mother.

"Well it's nice meeting you, Bella. Dinner's in a couple of hours if you'd like to stay." Esme said, while giving her a soft hug.

"I'd love to, Mrs. Cullen." Bella said politely.

Esme frowned, "Please call me Esme, dear. Alice give her a tour of the house, so she'll feel more welcomed," she smiled once more at Bella, and returned to the kitchen.

"Hello, Bella." I said, nervously. I usually didn't get nervous for anyone, but with Bella it was different. Especially after the little stunt that she pulled today at lunch.

She turned towards me and smiled. "Hey Edward! I wanted to apologize for what I did at lunch today. You looked uncomfortable, but I was only kidding. So, are we OK?" She asked, while pulling at the ends of her hair.

I gave her a crooked smile and said, "No harm, no foul. Plus, I kind of liked it. I was just... surprised is all." To be honest, I wouldn't mind if she did it again.

Emmett went up behind her and surprised her with a massive hug. Bella was startled and accidentally elbowed him in the stomach. Emmett doubled over in pain. Who knew someone so small could do so much damage?

She gasped. "Emmett! What is wrong with you? You scared the hell out of me!" she said, putting a hand over her heart.

Emmett carefully stood up, and looked a little flustered. Jasper was on the floor, laughing at the entire situation. "That was hilarious! Who knew someone so small could do so much damage!" He voiced my thoughts.

"Sorry, Bella." Emmett choked out. He pulled her into a soft hug this time.

"Much better!" Bella complimented and returned the hug.

Rosalie walked over and ran her hand up and down Emmett's back, while trying to control her laughter. "Hello, Bella. You're going to have to show me that one day, just in case I need to keep him in line." She playfully glared at Emmett, and walked away.

"Rosie! Only in the bedroom!" He yelled and slapped her butt.

She yelped in surprise and glared at him again, only this time, she was serious.

"Hey Ed, could you give Bella a tour of the house?" Alice said, with a mischievous smile. Then went to go sit with Jasper on the couch, talking quietly with him. She knew I'd happily agree.

_Thank you, Alice! _"Gladly," I complied.

Bella smiled at me and I put my hand on the small of her back. I showed her around the main floor, which consisted of the living room, kitchen, dining room, and Carlisle's study. She looked around curiously at the artwork in Carlisle's study. I told her they were passed down from Carlisle's ancestors and she seemed genuinely interested, whereas, other people probably would have dozed off from the story.

"There's many stories behind each artwork, but I don't know them too well, and I'd probably tell them wrong. Carlisle could tell you one day, if you want." I said, and she smiled.

"Of course! They sound truly interesting. Genealogy has always intrigued me. To know past family members, and relatives in the present are not that different. They sometimes hold the same interests, which the passing of the artworks symbolize." She mused.

"Hmm I never thought about it like that. I just thought Carlisle kept them because it was tradition. You keep them because you have to, or else you'll break tradition and become the outcast of the family." I said, thoughtfully.

"Could be...only Carlisle will know." We walked out and I silently closed the door behind me. I led Bella upstairs. First, I showed her Alice's bedroom.

She laughed out loud and looked around. "This room is so Alice." I nodded my head in agreement.

Her room's color theme, was pink, black, and white. Her queen-sized canopy bed was dark pink, with black railings. The bed's curtains were soft white, which made them fairly see-through. Her walls were painted light pink with black spirals randomly appearing on it. She had a plasma TV on the opposite side of her bed. Her white desk was completely covered in fashion magazines and drawings of different outfits. On her bedside table, was a picture of her and Jasper making goofy faces in the camera, and a black and silver lamp.

We shared one last laugh, and walked out. While we were walking, we decided to play twenty questions to pass the time.

"Um... what's your middle name?" I asked, randomly.

"Marie. I'm not too fond of it, but my mom loves that name. Plus, it's not like I could have talked her out of it when she gave it to me." She laughed. "What's one of your favorite hobbies?"

"Easy. Playing the piano." I replied quickly.

She looked at me for a moment. "You play the piano? Are you any good?"

"I've been playing ever since I was ten years old, so I would say I was pretty good. I even talked my parents into buying one for me when I turned fifteen, two years ago." I gave her a crooked smile. I wasn't normally a cocky person, but when it came to my piano abilities, I was.

"What's one thing that scares you?" I really wanted to know. She seemed to have no weakness. She was strong, physically and emotionally. But everyone has some sort of Kryptonite, right?

She looked away. "I'm not afraid of anything." She said, still not looking at me in the eyes.

We came to Emmett's room, but I told her she's better off not going in there. "It can be a bit... messy." I lied. It was fairly clean, but there were magazines and posters of half naked females everywhere, and I didn't want to make her uncomfortable. Rose is trying to get him to get rid of them.

I brought the subject back to what we were talking about, "Come on, everyone has _some_ type of weakness. Look at me, ever since I was younger, I've been deadly afraid of werewolves. I know they're not real, but still... they're creepy." I answered truthfully.

She laughed, "Werewolves, huh? How can you be afraid of something when you know its not real?" Her voice shocked me a bit, it was strangely vacant.

"I honestly don't know. Not everything has an answer. Somethings were just meant to be a mystery..." Something flashed in her eyes, and she seemed to come back to reality.

She shook her head, as if to clear it and said, "Agreed."

We came to a stop in front of my room. I opened the door and showed her inside. She looked around and seemed to be in awe of everything. "It's so open..." she observed, referring to the rather large window, without a curtain. Esme always tried to convince me to get a curtain for it, but I always politely declined. The window allowed the daylight to shine through, and I loved it. So why would I cover it up?

"Yes, it is. It's better that way." I agreed.

"Wow, you have so much music..." Her eyes scanned the rows of different types of music. "Why?" she asked, suddenly. She turned to look at me and quirked an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" I leaned against my bed frame and stared at her.

"Why do you have so much music? What makes you so interested in it?" She walked over and sat on my bed, waiting.

I turned around and looked at her. "I like music." I said plainly, and continued, "Everyone has something they just love doing. When I'm playing my piano or keyboard, it's like I'm in another world. Nothing bad ever exists in this world. When your in the midst of writing a new song, and you find that right note that just completes the piece. You're in total awe, and you want to do it again."

She nodded her head as if she expected as much. "My thing is drawing. I feel the exact same way when I draw or sketch something. When you find the perfect scenery, and you start creating. The feeling of your hands moving in perfect sync, creating the right shading and depth, is out of this world. And you just _have_ to do it again." She said, ever so softly.

Suddenly, she jumped off my bed and started walking to the door. Once she reached the door, she turned around and said, "I'd like to hear you play some day." She smiled, and walked out, shutting the door quietly behind her.

I stood there for a few minutes just thinking about her. Then, I realized how stupid I must look and went downstairs.


	6. Chapter 6

**Bella POV:**

A couple days had gone by, and before I knew it, it was Friday. I came to realize that the Cullens & the Hales were great people. Rosalie was the supportive one of the group, almost mother-like. Emmett was the entertainment. He could make me laugh without even trying to be funny. Jasper was great to talk to about how you were feeling because he seemed to be able to sense it. Alice was slowly, but surely becoming a really close friend of mine, even though I've only known her for a short amount of time. And Edward, lets just say he was my go-to person to talk to about _anything_... well almost anything.

I got up and took a quick shower because I was running a little late. I picked out my outfit quickly, which consisted of: black baggy pants with a single chain on the front pocket, a gray crop top that showed a bit of skin (but not much), and gray vans. I towel-dried my hair, and quickly put it up into a messy bun. I wasn't in the mood to do much with my makeup, so I decided a small amount of eye liner, and lip gloss would do the trick.

My room looked like a tornado just ran through it by the time I was done. My hygienic side came out, so I straightened up my room a bit before heading downstairs. My breakfast was only a small bowl of cereal, but I figured I'd just get a snack from the vending machine before I went to my first class.

Today, I pushed my trucks limit and went almost 50 mph. It didn't show it's discomfort, until I was pulling into the parking lot of Forks High, and it groaned to a stop. I peeked at my rear-view mirror, and saw that everyone was already waiting at Emmett's jeep, with Rosalie's BMW right beside it.

By the time I reached them, everyone was talking, animatedly. Obviously, there was something they were all excited about. "You guys are going on a date today!" Alice screamed, while hugging me.

"Alice for the hundredth time, it is not a date." Edward huffed and crossed his arms.

"Yes, sorry to burst your bubbles, Alice, but it's true." I said, while disentangling myself from her.

Emmett pulled me into a hug, and whispered in my ear, "It so is..." I told him he was wrong, but he just smirked in response, unbelieving.

"Don't mind them. They obviously hear what they want to hear, and not what they should hear." Rosalie said, while pulling me into a comforting side hug.

Jasper said a brief hello to me, and ran a hand up and down Alice's arm, trying to calm her. "Bella, if its not a date, then why are you going with Edward? Anybody, could "show you around town," so why him?" She said with a challenging smirk.

"If you didn't know, I only made that up so Edward could get away from the biggest slut of all time, Jessica. But we just decided to go, no big deal." I shrugged and looked up at Edward.

He just stood there, staring down at me, and looking deep in thought. I asked him what was wrong, seeing as everyone was talking to their other half.

Something flashed in his eyes, and he seemed to have resurfaced. "Oh! Nothing." He said quickly, while running his hand through his hair.

I hugged him, and said, "You were spacing out, Mr. Cullen. What's on your mind?"

He was about to respond, but was interrupted when the bell rang. I briefly glanced at the school, "I have to go, but tell me later?"

"Maybe I could walk with you?" He sounded hopeful, but I didn't know why. Whenever Edward asked to walk with me, I would never deny him.

"Sure, but we have to stop by the vending machine first because I'm starving." I exaggerated, while patting my stomach.

He chuckled, and put his arm around my waist in a comforting gesture. "So have you decided where we are going this afternoon?" I didn't really care about seeing more of Forks, to be honest. Mostly all of Forks was just green and rainy, so why would I want to see more of it? I didn't. But I'd be with Edward, so I didn't really care.

My feelings for him haven't changed, as Alice would sometimes like to imply. I must admit, he was attractive. But he was a friend, and I was extremely happy he didn't push things between us. When I told him I didn't like getting into relationships, he didn't enforce it or pressure me, and I loved him for that.

"Well, I was thinking we could go to this diner and grab a quick bite to eat. Then, I could show you my favorite place in the world, which will remain a secret. Sound good?" He smirked.

"Edward Cullen, you know I do not like secrets. Never have, never will. So no, it doesn't sound good!" I crossed my arms.

"Bella, the beautiful thing about life is that it's a surprise. And surprise is what keeps life interesting, so you will never get bored. A good surprise once in a while will not kill you. I'm sorry, but you have no say in where we go. End of discussion." He said with finality. I never really liked when anyone or guys, in particular, told me what to do.

I glared dauntingly at him, and walked in front of him to where I was right in his face. "You are funny. You thought you could tell me what to do." I chuckled, humorlessly. "Edward, just so you know, I don't really like it when people try to tell me what to do. So do not try, or you will get on my bad side." I smirked at him. I took his chin in my hands to turn his head to the side, and kissed his cheek, so he'd know I wasn't _really_ mad at him. My sole purpose was only to rattle him up a bit. I'm fun to be around, unless you got on my bad side. Then, I could become your worst enemy.

He looked to be in a daze and stared down at me with widened eyes. He didn't respond so I turned around and headed for the vending machine, then to my first class.

**Edward's POV:**

_I really wish Bella would stop doing that. _

I watched her retreating form, and thought about how she seemed to know what to do to leave me speechless. Honestly, I liked seeing Bella a little upset. It was a definite turn on. I was always attracted to strong girls, and Bella seemed to be the strongest of them all. Then, when she kissed me on the cheek, it was the best feeling in the world, and I wanted her to do it again ... and again.

When she first told me that she didn't like getting into relationships, I was a bit bummed. I wanted to be in a relationship with her, but she didn't seem ready for it, and it aggravated me to no end. But I had to be patient because one day she would, hopefully.

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**A/N: Sorry for the long delay, but I just haven't been in the best mood for writing, and didn't really know what to write. But the mild writers block is over, and hopefully the next chapter will be up tomorrow! Reviews always help me write faster!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Edward's POV: **

The last bell rang, signaling school was finally over. To say I was excited to spend the afternoon with only Bella, would be an understatement. She came over our house a few more times, but it would never just be me and her. At least one of my family members would always be around, no matter how many times I secretly glared at them, wishing for them to go away.

I walked to my locker, thankful that it was close to my last class. I took out my book bag and stuffed my books inside. I slammed my locker shut with a bang, and jogged outside to wait by Bella's truck.

Because I rode in Emmett's jeep today, I had no other choice but to ride in Bella's truck. We would be driving to my house first, so that we could switch cars. Bella didn't see a problem with driving in her truck, but I literally begged her to take my Volvo. Her heart of gold quickly agreed, mostly because she didn't really care.

I leaned against the truck bed, and pulled on my black sunglasses. Forks was experiencing it's first sunny day in a long time, but I was not one to complain. This kind of weather would definitely make my afternoon with Bella much more special.

My eyes quickly scanned the parking lot and rested upon Bella's face when I saw her walk outside with Alice by her side. She seemed to feel someone staring at her and looked up. When she realized it was me, she quickly smiled and waved at me. I returned the wave, and made a "come here" gesture with my finger. I noticed what kind of shirt Bella had on today and tried with all my might not to look at it, but my efforts were futile. My eyes trailed down from Bella's face to her waistline. I saw a slither of skin showing, and was once again turned on.

She was wearing black baggy pants with a chain on them, and a short tight gray shirt. It was a nice juxtaposition, that gave off an edgy feel and made her look absolutely mouthwatering. I looked back up, and noticed a smug grin on her face.

**Bella's POV:**

I walked outside to the parking lot, listening to Alice chat on and on about the latest fashion trend. I felt someone staring at me and looked up to see none other than Edward Cullen. He was leaning against my truck and wearing black sunglasses that made him look extremely cool, though I'd never boost his ego by admitting it. I briefly waved at him, and he gestured for me to come to him.

His head tilted down an inch and I automatically knew he was staring at the exposed skin on my waist. I smiled, and let him have his quick look.

Alice noticed his staring too. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Edward seems to _love_ the shirt your wearing today." She looked back at her brother and then at me.

I laughed and looked back at her. "Yes, I know."

"And you're okay with that?" She raised her eyebrows, and I suddenly knew why she was so incredulous about me being okay with Edward looking at me the way he did. All through school, guys kept staring at me as if I was a piece of meat, and I would glare at them. They seemed to take the blatant hint, and would look away quickly. With Edward it's different, I knew he'd never take advantage of me in any way so I trusted him. I couldn't say the same thing about those other guys though.

I shrugged my shoulders and simply said, "I trust him more."

She beamed at me when I said that, and gave me a quick goodbye hug. I saw her retreat over to Emmett's jeep and Jasper's ever-waiting arms.

I walked over to Edward with a smug grin on my face, and saw him look back up at my face.

"What were you staring at, Edward?" I asked, as if I didn't already know the answer. My hands moved to Edward's face, and took off his sunglasses. I saw the hunger in his eyes, and was satisfied that I had that kind of effect on him. Alice told me that Edward hadn't liked any of the girls in school, and in their old school there were only a few girls that caught his interest. I suspected as much because someone with Edward's physicality would definitely have no problem getting a girlfriend.

He noticed the smirk on my face, and had one on his face as well. "I think you know."

"Ah yes I do, but I want to hear you say it." I threw his sunglasses in between my hands and stared at him, waiting.

He brought himself close to me, and leaned his head in to where it was right by my ear. "You..." he whispered. Then, he kissed the skin right below my ear, leaving me in pure shock.

He pulled back. When he noticed the look on my face, he smiled, obviously very proud of himself. One of his hands reached out and caught the sunglasses in mid-air, and put them back on.

Once I composed my face to one of nonchalance, I went around him to the drivers side, unlocked the door, and climbed inside._ I_ was always the one to leave _him_ in shock, that was my everyday game. But I guess he found his nuts and decided to play as well. Well, I've always been one for challenges, so let the games begin.

He followed suit, and climbed into my truck as well. Once he was safely inside, I started the engine and pulled out the parking lot, while rummaging through the different music stations. I came across the rock station and decided to see what was on. Next Contestant by Nickelback started playing.

_I judge by what she's wearing _

_Just how many heads I'm tearing_

_Off of assholes coming onto her_

_Each night seems like its getting worse_

I smiled at the song, and nodded my head to the beat. It's not that I supported it's message because I didn't. The song was about some jealous, testosterone-filled boyfriend who was offended when another guy or girl, for that matter, looked at his girlfriend in an inappropriate way. Come on, just because a random guy is gawking at your girlfriend, doesn't mean you have to tear their heads off.

_Is that your hand on my girlfriend?_

_Is that your hand?_

_I wish you'd do it again._

_I'll watch you leave here limping._

_I wish you'd do it again._

_I'll watch you leave here limping._

_There goes the next contestant._

I chuckled at that and a question popped into my head. "Are you like that?" I asked Edward.

The look on his face told me he had no idea what I was talking about. "Like what?" He asked.

"Like the guy in the song. Would you get jealous if guys came onto your girlfriend?" I turned the music down to where it was simply background music and glanced at him, before returning my attention back to the road.

He smiled at me and said, "To be honest, yes I would. I wouldn't literally rip their heads off, but I would be jealous. What guy wouldn't? Lets say for instance, _you_ were my girlfriend. And some guy was staring at your butt or something. I would not be very happy, and would feel like ripping their heads off."

I thought about what he said for a moment. "Why would you feel threatened, though? I would be _your_ girlfriend, not _his_. " I asked curiously.

He said in all seriousness, "True, but you are mine, meaning no one can look at you in that way or else I won't like it."

His eyes bore into mine, before I looked back at the road. A slight blush rose to my face, and I felt his hand caress my burning cheek. I made a right turn and pulled into his driveway. I shut off the engine, and just sat there, unmoving. His hand found its way to mine, and gave it a tight squeeze before letting go. "We better get going." He said, though he made no move to leave.

I looked at him and lightly, playfully punched his chin, which automatically killed the intense moment we just share as I intended for it to do. "Alright, lets go _buddy_."

He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

**Edward's POV:**

We quickly switched cars, and headed towards the diner. The atmosphere in the car was pretty tense, and neither one of us were willing to speak. I decided to break the silence with a question that was the foremost thought of my mind.

"Why did you call me that?" I tried to make my voice sound trivial and uncaring, but I really wanted to know.

"What are you talking about?" She asked.

"When I told you we should get going in your car. You called me _buddy_." The word came out of my mouth as if it were a curse word.

Her eyes widened in realization. Then, she looked back at me and said, "Why does it matter? Honestly, with everything that we talked about in the car, _that's_ what you decide to remember?" Her voice sounded a bit harsh, and I desperately wanted to know what she was thinking.

"No, its just everything was going so smoothly. When you called me that, it kind of ruined the moment."

"What moment?" That simple question made everything heartbreakingly clear to me. She didn't feel the connection I had felt before.

We came to a red light, and I took that opportunity to stare at her. "You didn't feel it." I didn't mean for her to hear it, but she did.

"Wha-what are you talking about, Edward? You're not making any sense!" She practically yelled. I wondered why she became so angry over nothing.

My voice turned cold, "Why are you yelling at me, Bella? I've done nothing, _unlike you_..." I murmured the last part, thankfully she didn't hear it this time.

She pushed a button on her door, and let the window down slightly. I watched her take a couple deep breaths, steadying herself. "Maybe we shouldn't do this..." she said. Something in her voice made me realize that she wasn't just talking about the date, she was talking about... us.

I wasn't thinking clearly when I whispered my next words, "Maybe... maybe you're right..."

I pulled the car over on a random street and quickly shut it off. I walked outside and leaned on the hood, while taking out a cigarette. I was trying to quit smoking, but at that moment I needed to.

I tried sorting through my thoughts for a few minutes. My mind was telling me to just end my feelings for Bella. To stop thinking about her, and the endless possibilities with her. I wished, with everything inside me, that I listened, but I just... couldn't. It didn't feel right because my heart wouldn't let me.

"I didn't know you smoked..." Bella said, startling me. I turned around and saw that she took her hair down.

"Sometimes its necessary for me." I continued staring at her, trying to truly see her for what she was.

She nodded her head in understanding. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. I just get overwhelmed easily."

"I noticed, and apology accepted. I'm sorry too. I realized I really wasn't making any sense back there."

She looked back at the sun and tilted her head up. Ever so slightly, her body relaxed again the car door and her palms turned upward. Her beautiful brown eyes slowly disappeared from my vision, leaving her eyelids to cover them. It seemed like she was soaking up energy from the sun, like it was giving her some sort of strength.

I threw my cigarette on the ground and stomped on it, putting it out. Slowly, I walked over to her, as not to disturb her peaceful state. Once I was close enough to her, I observed the beauty in front of me. Her skin was aglow from the sunlight radiating it. Her dark pink lips were turned down into a cute little pout that I just wanted to kiss away. And her long brown hair was caught in the slight breeze, and flowed around her.

After a few minutes, I was beginning to think she'd fallen asleep. But she surprised me by opening her eyes, looking completely rejuvenated. "Hi..." She gave me a little smile.

"Hey,are you okay?" I asked, unsure.

"I'm completely okay. Do you want to just go back home?" She stood, and walked up to me.

"Yeah, I guess. We could just hang out at my house for a while... if that's okay with you?" I took one of her fly-away hairs and secured it behind her ear.

She grabbed my hand before I could pull away, and gave it a quick squeeze before letting go. "I'd like that."

I nodded my head, and walked over to the driver's side, but not before hearing a quiet whisper of, "I _did _feel it..."

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**A/N: Not what you were expecting huh? Review for quicker updates!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alice's POV:**

A few months had gone by since Edward and Bella's _date. _I was dying to know what actually happened because they came home a couple of hours earlier than planned. And whenever I'd try asking them about it, they'd always brush it aside as if nothing happened. They seemed to have taken a step back in their relationship. Of course, they still talked but all of the playful, innocent flirting was completely gone.

It was Friday afternoon and Jazz, Rosalie, and Bella were sleeping over. She and Edward were talking outside, while everyone else was lounging around the living room. Jazz and Emmett were on the floor playing the Wii. Rose and I were sitting on the couch talking about ways to get Bella and Edward together.

"Wait Rose, what do you think they're talking about?" I gestured towards the porch where they seemed to be in a heated argument.

Bella looked to be in control of herself (as always), with her chin held high. She was standing up straight, and full-on glaring at Edward. But he was not backing down either. He towered over her dramatically, and every couple of seconds he'd move closer to her, making her step back. After a while, her back was pressed up against the door, with Edward's chest pressed up against hers.

"I have no idea, but it looks like neither one of them is willing to back down." Rose was staring wide-eyed at them.

I glanced at our boys, curious as to whether or not they were catching any of this. They were so absorbed in the video game that they had no idea what was going on around them.

"Should we break it up?" I said, while getting up and moving towards the porch.

"No! Alice, let's just stay out of it for once. Whatever problems they're having, they need to work it out themselves. Without any interference from us, got it?" She said in a stern voice, while grabbing my arm and pulling me back to the couch.

"Sure..." I mumbled.

"I win!" Emmett screamed, making me divert my attention to them.

"Dude, you cheated! You can't put your hand in my face, blocking my view, and NOT win!" Jasper said, while moving his hands around, animatedly.

Emmett's cheerful grin turned to small frown, and I heard him murmur, "Total hater..."

Rosalie and I chuckled at our boyfriends silliness, and looked back at Edward and Bella.

Suddenly, Bella pushed Edward off of her and turned to the door. She pulled it open and turned back to him. I heard her mumble a soft, "I'm scared..." Then, she closed the door in his face, and walked upstairs. Edward stood frozen, staring after her.

Rosalie and I shared a look. "Let's go." She nodded her head in agreement, and we both stood up and went after Bella.

We found her in my room, sitting on the bed. She looked up, and when I saw the look on her face, I was shocked and froze. She was _teary-eyed._ Granted, she wasn't technically crying, but I've never even seen her eyes get watery. Not even when all three of us watched _A Walk to Remember,_ and Rosalie and I were crying our hearts out by the end of the movie. She never shed a tear.

I looked over at Rosalie, and she looked heartbroken. The same look must have been reciprocated on my face because she took one glance at it, and frowned. Both Rose and I walked over to Bella, and opened our arms for a welcoming hug. Bella took the hint and threw herself into our waiting arms.

Rosalie kept patting down Bella's long hair, while I ran my hand up and down her back. We had no idea what happened, but it must have been something big because we've never seen Bella this... _vulnerable_.

**Bella's POV:**

We were all sitting around the living room when Edward got up from the floor and walked over to me. "Can I talk to you for a second?" His voice sounded urgent, so I quickly agreed.

"Outside?" He didn't wait for me to reply, he simply took my hand gently and led me to the porch.

Once we were outside, he turned his back to me and put his arms on the railing. He took a couple of deep breaths and remained silent. I got tired of waiting after a while and said, "What do you want?" The question came out a little colder than I intended, but I failed to care.

After a few minutes, he replied in a soft voice, "What happened?" For some reason, that aggravated me to no end. Why did all of his questions have to be so cryptic all the time?

I tried my hardest to keep the vexation out of my voice when I answered him. "What are you talking about, Edward?"

He turned around and looked at me. I mean, _really_ looked at me. He ran his eyes up and down my body, making me feel a bit self-conscious. He decided to settle on looking at my face and answered, "...To us," in a quiet whisper. I had to strain my ears to hear him.

I cocked my eyebrow at him and decided to play dumb, though I knew certainly what he was talking about. "I really don't know what your talking about."

He didn't seem to like that very much because he narrowed his eyes at me. He took a couple of steps towards me, and I noticed that his hands were in tight fists by his side. "Bella, why do you always have to be like that?" He said in a tight voice. It was like he was trying to restrain himself from yelling at me.

"Like what?" I challenged him by taking a step forward and glaring back at him.

He took that as an invitation to start yelling at me. "You always have to deny your feelings! We were really close before, and then you had to go and fuck it up! I liked you a lot and I still do. I _know_ you like me too! You just will not admit it to yourself, and it pisses me off! Gosh, why do you have to be so damn strong all the time! Is it so freaking wrong to just trust someone?" He screamed. All the while, he kept taking small steps towards me, leaving me to back up against the door.

"Yes it is..." I said in the calmest voice I could manage and continued, "I told you when I first met you that I'm _not_ girlfriend material. You should have taken my warning then because I can't be with you! Why can't you accept it?" I yelled at him.

I looked down and saw that his fists were shaking, and when I returned my eyes to his face I saw a single tear run down it. "Bella, I c-can't do this anymore" He stuttered, and it broke my heart to see him like that and know that _I_ was the cause of it. He reached out and took my chin in his hand, while his thumb gently caressed my cheek. Unknowingly, I leaned in towards his hand, loving the passionate spark I felt there.

I wanted with everything inside of me to kiss him, right then and there. I just wanted to feel the intense connection I knew I'd feel when I pressed my lips against his, and just forget about the consequences. But my insecure side, though buried deep, wouldn't allow me to.

"Do what?" I asked in a calm voice, while taking his hand off of my face. I wouldn't be able to think rationally, with him looking at me in the way that he did **and** touching me. I would give in easily.

"Pretend that I'm just your friend because I want to be so much more than that. Why won't you just... be with me?" I knew he was trying to keep himself from touching me again, so I pushed him off of me and moved towards the door.

I opened the door and turned towards him again. Softly, I said, "I'm scared..." I felt a tear threatening to escape and quickly went inside, shutting the door in his face.

My feet carried me upstairs, and into Alice's room. A few minutes later, I heard someone come in, and looked up to see who it was. Rosalie and Alice stood in the doorway, looking down. I watched them walk over and open there arms to me. Without any hesitation, I threw myself into their arms, where we stayed for what felt like forever.

Once we were all ready, we pulled apart and Rosalie went to get some ice cream, saying that it helps. Alice led me to the bathroom and helped me fix myself up. My eyes were red and a bit puffy, making it obvious that I just cried. So she told me to rinse my face with cold water, and I'd feel a ton better. I did as she asked, and like always, she was right.

I watched her pull out some Visine Eye Droppers and told me to put some in my eyes to clear the redness. Once that was done, I waited a few minutes and the redness was gone. Alice continued to clean me up for a couple more minutes until she decided I was decent enough and we walked back to the bedroom. Rosalie sat on the bed with three cartons of ice cream. Vanilla for her, chocolate for Alice, and strawberry for myself.

We all got comfortable on the bed, before I decided to speak. "You guys want to know what happened, don't you?"

They both nodded sheepishly, and smiled.

**Rosalie's POV:**

I walked downstairs to get the ice cream as quickly as I could, but stopped in my tracks once I saw Edward. He looked... crushed. I felt so bad for him because it seemed like that conversation with Bella took a huge toll on him.

He turned his head and when he caught sight of me, his eyes widened. "Is she okay, Rosalie?" His voice sounded a bit scratchy.

_Wow, he actually cares, _I thought. It's not that Edward was insensitive and uncaring most of the time, it's just that he never cared too much about anyone outside his family or extended family (which included Jasper and I, since we weren't really related to him).

"She'll be just fine, Edward. Why don't you just take a nap? Okay? Maybe you'll be able to see her when you wake up?" I said, ever so softly. My motherly side came out when Edward nodded and headed towards the stairs. I walk with him upstairs and made sure he washed his face with cold water before he went to bed.

"It's going to be okay." I whisper, even though he was already passed out by the time I said it.

I went downstairs and walked to the kitchen to get our ice cream. My hands reached around the freezer for Bella's strawberry ice cream, Alice's chocolate ice cream, and my tasty vanilla ice cream.

"Boo!" Emmett said, popping out of no where.

"Ahh!" I screamed, while accidentally dropping everything. "Emmett! You are so silly!" I tried to contain my laughter and look stern, but I know a small smile escaped from my lips.

"I know, and you love me for it." He said, while bending down and picking up the ice cream. Thankfully, none of them spilled opened. "Wow, that's a lot of ice cream, Rose."

"Well, it's for a good cause." I grabbed the ice cream from Emmett and went to get the spoons so we wouldn't have to eat it with our fingers like cave men.

"You know they are going to get together, right? They're soul mates." Emmett said softly, while watching me.

"I kno-" I started, but was cut off by Jasper's loud yelling.

"EMMETT, LETS PLAY! SAY GOODBYE TO ROSE AND COME ON!" He yelled from the other room.

Emmett's eyes darted from me to the living room and back again. He looked torn, which made me laugh. "Emmett, you can go. I need to get this ice cream to Bella anyway. Would you win one for me?" I stood up on my tip toes and gave him a chaste kiss.

I went to pull away, but he grabbed my head and pulled me back for a much longer kiss. "Of course. Love you, Rosie." He said softly when he pulled away.

"Love you too, Em." We walked into the living room together. Then, he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and went to sit next to Jasper on the floor.

I ran upstairs and went into Alice's room. They emerged from the bathroom, not 10 seconds later. We all got situated on Alice's bed when Bella said, "You guys want to know what happened, don't you?"

Both Alice and I nodded our heads and Bella proceeded to tell us what happened.

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**A/N: You like? Yes? Thanks! Don't worry, Edward and Bella will be getting together real soon! REVIEW PLZ :P**


	9. Chapter 9

**Bella's POV:**

Once I told Alice and Rosalie what happened they had a look of both shock and bafflement on their faces. "Hmm... Edward really cried, huh? I never even knew such a thing was possible, to be honest." Rosalie said while twirling a piece of her blonde hair.

Alice stared at me for a minute without saying a word. It was vexing me, but before I had the chance to voice my thoughts to her, she spoke up. "What are you scared about, Bella? I don't understand."

I pulled at the ends of my hair, mulling over her question. I answered her slowly, "I guess,I just can't... trust people that easily." I said blatantly, while looking at my half full ice cream carton.

"I can relate to that, Bella. When Emmett first started asking me out, I continuously blew him off. It's not that I didn't like him, I did. It was that 1% of me that didn't want to trust him because I thought he'd hurt me. So I saved myself the heartache, and guarded myself before I really had the chance to fall for him." Rosalie said quietly.

I don't know how, but Rosalie just summed up all my thoughts when she said that. My problem wasn't Edward, my problem was my inane ability to trust people. I took a deep breath and smiled at Rose, "Wow. Rose, that's exactly how I feel. How did you get over that feeling? Weren't you scared?"

"Of course I was, Bella. Who wouldn't be? It's always a risk when it comes to trusting people with your heart. But when you find the right person, you won't act on _'what is right'_, you'll act on _'how you feel'. _Now that I have, I can honestly say that I love Emmett with my entire heart, and I know for a fact that he would rather die than hurt me." She said, while she was talking, her hand somehow made it's way to the left side of her chest, where her actual heart was.

"Agreed. Sometimes Bella, you just have to jump into the unknown and trust that someone will be there to catch you." Alice gave my hand a small, gentle squeeze.

"I know..." I trailed off, thinking.

"Plus, based off of the conversation you guys just had, you can obviously tell that Edward is serious about you too. So you're not in this alone, you have him. He'll trust you with his heart, so you should trust him with yours." Rosalie picked up all of our ice cream cartons and put them in the trash. Then, she returned to the bed.

"Rosalie, you give great advice, you know that?" I chuckled. "Hey, you guys I need to get this off my mind for a while. You mind if we do something... anything?" They both shrugged, obviously okay with anything I chose.

I thought about something we could do that would get us out the house, and then a brilliant idea popped into my head. I smiled brightly at both of them, causing them to look at me suspiciously. "Shopping!" I usually didn't really like shopping that much, but I knew it would definitely keep my mind off of Edward, and both Alice and Rosalie would enjoy themselves. "I've been thinking, maybe I should change up my look a little. No more dark clothes for me."

They both squealed loudly, and Alice attacked me with a massive hug, making me laugh. "Oh Bella! You don't know how long I've been wanting to change your look! Wait, that came out wrong. You're pretty, it's just... um..." She struggled to find the right words to cover her faux pas.

I laughed out loud. "It's okay, Alice. So let's get going, shall we?"

"We shall!" They both replied.

Ten minutes later, we were all seated in Rosalie's BMW. She put the top down so all of our hair was literally flying out the window, but it felt really freeing so I didn't oppose to it. It took about 30 minutes to get to Port Angeles, and another 5 minutes to find the mall, but once we did, Alice and Rosalie went berserk.

They both raced into the mall, dragging me with them. "Okay, the first change we are going to make is: The Hair. I'm thinking, we should take about 6 inches off, add layers, and light brown streaks. What do you think, Rose?" She looked over at her.

Rosalie studied me for a few seconds, then replied, "I agree with everything, but I think we should add subtle side bangs, yes?"

Alice's eyes got wide at the thought. "YES! Bella, you would look totally cute with side bangs!" She clapped her hands together, excitedly.

"Hello! Aren't you guys going to ask me if I approve of what changes you want to make to _my _hair?" I asked incredulous.

Rosalie let out a long, exasperated breath and said, "Sure, Bella. Do you approve of the changes we _will _make to your hair?" She made sure to add emphasis to the word "will" meaning I really had no choice because it was going to happen anyway.

"We're wasting time..." I heard Alice mumble.

I thought about it for a few minutes longer than necessary just to piss her off more, "Eh, sure!"

They both glared at me, and walked towards the hair salon. Satisfied, I smiled and followed behind them.

We walked into this "professional-looking" hair salon, and Alice immediately went to this lady that looked to be in her late 30's. She started chatting animatedly with her, and something told me this wasn't the first time Alice has been here.

Rose and I stood awkwardly in the middle of the hair salon for a few minutes. Both, Alice and the lady came over to us. "It's all set! Bella sit down, and let Ms. Verona here do your hair." She led us to the chair, and practically pushed me into it.

"Hello, Bella. I'm Ms. Verona and Alice is a regular client of mine. She's told me exactly what look you want, so just sit back and relax." Her voice was kind, and gentle. I tried to do exactly what she told me to do. After a while of struggling, I finally fell asleep.

It felt like I only got about 5 minutes of rest when I felt Rosalie gently nudging me to wake up. "Get up, sleepyhead. Ms. Verona is done with your hair, you want to see it?" Rose said softly.

"Um, sure?" I said groggily. Rose leaned over the chair to get a mirror, and placed it in front of my face.

Once I saw my reflection, I was instantly awake. _I looked so different._ _A Good different. _My hair was a lot shorter than before, but it was still pretty long and ended right below my breasts. Instead of the dark brown - almost black hair that I was so used to, I had brown hair with lighter brown streaks running through it. It made my eyes look more hazel rather than their true chocolate brown. The layers framed my face perfectly, and the side bangs created a bit of edginess to the look.

"I'm speechless. I love it, guys. Thank you... so much." I don't know why, but I felt like crying and throwing my arms around Ms. Verona.

"It's no problem at all, Bella. I'm glad you like it." Ms. Verona said, while giving my hair one last look over to make sure nothing was out of place.

"You really like it!" Alice said, smiling brightly while jumping in place.

"It's amazing Alice, and I couldn't thank you guys enough!" I said truthfully.

"Okay, Step #1 is complete. The next step is: The Clothes! A personal favorite of mine. Let's get going!" We quickly paid them, and left.

I lost track of how many stores we'd gone in after the first 10. I pretty much let Alice and Rosalie get me whatever they wanted because anytime I'd say something they chose was too flashy or revealing or expensive or just plain colorful, they'd give me a look that said, "Be quiet, or I'll force you."

We were just leaving Victoria Secret, when Alice said, "Okay, I think we're done for the day. Let's go home." I started cheering, while jumping up and down. Alice rolled her eyes and walked towards the exit, and Rose laughed at me then followed behind Alice.

By the time we got home, it was already dark outside. All three of us came stumbling into the house, the weight of all the bags made a huge impact on our balance. We walked into the living room, and only Emmett and Jasper were there. "Hey guys, where is everyone?" I asked, while switching one bag to my other hand.

"Mom and dad are in their room, doing god knows what. And Edward is upstairs asleep." Emmett answered, while coming up to Rosalie and giving her a cocky grin before leaning down to kiss her.

"Bella! You changed your hair!" Jasper noticed, while putting a casual arm around Alice.

_Guys, always stating the obvious._

"Yes, Jasper I did." I chuckled.

"Don't you just love it, Jazzy?" Alice said, while looking up at him.

"It suits you, definitely." He looked down at her and gave her a quick peck on the forehead.

"Well, we have to get these bags upstairs. Could you guys get the rest of the bags from the car, and bring them up to Alice's room?" Rosalie knew they would comply so she was already headed towards the stairs.

"Okay!" They said obediently and rushed out the door.

We all got settled into Alice's room, surrounded by tons of different brands of bags. "Okay! Let's start picking out our outfits for Monday!" Alice was already riffling through the different bags, before she was even finished speaking.

"Alice today is Friday. We still have a couple more days before we have to go back to school." I told her.

"It's never too early to pick out your outfit, Bella." Alice said, while laying a grey blouse next to some light wash skinny jeans.

"Guys, I'm curious as to how people will react. What do you think they will say?" I asked.

"When you say "people" do you really mean Edward?" Rosalie smirked at me.

"For your information, Missy, the word "people" is a general term, meaning Edward is included. I didn't mean him specifically, I meant everybody." They both chuckled.

"You are extremely defensive, Ms. Bella." Alice observed. She was throwing different pieces of clothing around the room, and a red shirt landed on my head.

"I'm not defensive!" I yelled, while removing the shirt and chucking it at Alice when she laughed at me.

"Whatever you say..." She sang.

I grumbled to myself. I can never win with Alice, and it wasn't fair. Twenty minutes later, she said she had found the perfect outfit that looked "too cute" on me, her words not mine. "Bella, you are going to look amazing in this outfit. Make sure you keep it straightened out in the passenger seat when you drive home tomorrow morning so it doesn't become wrinkled, got it?"

I mock saluted her then said, "Ma'am, yes, ma'am!"

Rosalie smiled at my silliness and said, "Okay everyone lets go to sleep, I'm so tired." We all changed our clothes to our pajamas and brushed our teeth. Then, Rose went and turned off the lights.

Not thirty minutes later, I was almost asleep when I saw the door open slightly. "Edward, what do you want?" I heard Alice's tired voice ask.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Alice. I didn't mean to wake you. But since your up already, can I talk to Bella?" Edward's voice asked in a low whisper that I had to strain my ears to hear.

"She's asleep right now, she was really exhausted. So I don't think that's a good idea." Alice let out a huge yawn and rubbed her eyes.

Edward let out a frustrated grunt, and sighed. "Fine, whatever." Then, he turned around and left.

I heard Alice mumble, "Brothers... so strange," before she closed the door and jumped back in bed, causing all of us to bounce.

I wondered what Edward wanted to talk about. I decided to give him a chance because I really did like him, a lot. I would tell him that I wanted to be with him on Monday, and hope that I wouldn't get burned in the process. But until then, silence had to be my best friend because I don't think I could tell him that as early as tomorrow, I'd chicken out, no doubt about it.

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**A/N: Sorry for the delay, but hey at least it's up right? Which POV should I do next? Bella or Edward? The next chapter will take place at school on Monday, when Bella finally tells Edward how she feels towards him! Hopefully, that chapter will be up tomorrow, if not then Tuesday definitely :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Bella's POV:**

Monday came around a lot quicker than I expected. My father was very surprised when I came home Saturday morning, looking completely different. He said that I looked absolutely amazing, and that gave me the confidence that made me feel as if I could take anything on.

My alarm blared, which meant its was 7:40 a.m. and I needed to start getting ready for school. My outfit for the day was already ready, thanks to Alice. It hung in my closet ready for me to wear.

I took a hot shower, and quickly scrubbed every inch of my body. I slowed my movements when I got to my hair. I always liked washing my hair slowly, it did wonders to my nerves. Five minutes later, I was drying off in my bathroom. I took out all my new makeup, Alice, Rosalie, and I picked out on Friday. They didn't allow me to buy any black makeup, other than eye liner of course.

I brushed my teeth, then applied my Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation on my face, then a loose powder to set it. I thought about the mini argument Alice and I got in over this foundation. It cost a whopping amount of $42 for a small amount of product. She insisted that it was the best foundation in the world, so we settled on each paying half of it.

My eye makeup consisted of a light brown eyeshadow all over the lid, with a deep green eyeshadow in the crease. I quickly applied some mascara on my eyelashes, and brown eyeliner.

I made sure my robe was securely wrapped around myself when I stepped out the bathroom and into my closet. I struggled with putting on my ripped light wash jeans for a while, until finally I got them on. Next was my grey long-sleeved off the shoulder shirt. I actually really liked this shirt, even though it was simple. It allowed me to breathe, unlike my very tight pants. My favorite part of the outfit had to be the shoes. They were light brown suede scrunch boots with a thick heel, which made them a dream to walk in.

The next twenty minutes were spent with me straightening my hair. I wouldn't make a habit out of applying so much heat to my hair because it would damage it, but it was okay if I did it once in a while.

I made my way downstairs and fixed myself some cereal, which I ate while getting all my books together and put them in my book bag.

My drive to school was easy. My thoughts wandered to the lyrics of the song that were playing at the time. My whole mood was just happy, to say the least. I had this gut feeling that today would be good, great even. When I pulled into Forks High parking lot, and saw Alice and Rosalie wave frantically at me, while Edward tried to smile cockily at me, though it didn't reach his eyes, I knew I was correct in the feeling.

I shut off my truck, and stepped outside. My feet moved me towards my friends, while my ears heard nothing but silence. I lifted my head to try to see what attracted everyone's attention, when I was met with tons of staring eyes. I felt a sense of déjà vu because this is exactly what happened on my first day, several months ago.

I was about halfway there when Alice and Rosalie decided I was taking too long, and ran towards me. When they reached me, their arms engulfed me and we shared a hug, while laughing. "Bella! You actually straightened your hair like I told you to! It looks so good!" Alice exclaimed.

"It does!" Rosalie said, while patting it down.

"Well, I try." I said cockily.

"Come on, let's see what your husband thinks." Alice said casually, while taking my hand and tugging me along with her and Rose.

"My husband? And who would that be?" I asked.

"Oh, like you don't know," Rose rolled her eyes at me.

"Guys, he's not even my boyfriend." I conceded.

"Well, not yet anyway." Rose mumbled.

Once we reached the guys, Emmett pulled me into a hug as usual, while Jasper smiled at me. My eyes drifted to Edward, and I saw that he was staring wide-eyed at me with his mouth open.

"Hello, Edward." I said. He didn't respond, he only continued to stare at me. I moved my hands in front of his face, trying to get some kind of reaction out of him, and after a while of trying he finally seemed to snap out of it.

It took him a couple of seconds to respond, but he finally did. "Bella, you look... really hot." He admitted, while his eyes raked over every inch of my body.

"Thank you." I said sincerely, and continued, "Hey, there's something I need to talk to you about. Do you mind if we're a couple of minutes late for Biology?" I asked.

"I need to talk to you too. And no, it's cool with me." He continued to stare at me, and I liked the fact that he was being obvious about it.

"Okay," I brought a finger to his chin, and lifted his head slightly so that he was actually looking in my eyes and not at my body. I laughed when I saw him simile sheepishly. "So, we'll meet at your locker, okay?"

"Got it!" He smiled, and continued, "Can I walk you to class?" He asked, already reaching for my hand.

"Actually, Rosie and I are going to do that today. If you don't mind, Edward." Edward looked like he was going to respond, but Alice cut him off. "Oh? You don't? Thanks, Bro!" Alice yelled, already pulling me and Rosalie away.

"Alice, I actually wanted to walk with him, you know." I said, a little annoyed at her.

Rosalie responded, "Bella, there's one thing you need to know. Always leave them wanting more."

"Oh..." I trailed off.

They laughed at my callowness. We talked about other things I "needed to know" until it was time for us to go our separate ways.

I was a little early to my first class, but I didn't mind. It gave me a few extra minutes to myself to just relaxed.

"Hey, Bella!" I heard Angela's voice say. I looked up and smiled at her.

Angela and I got a lot closer, than we were before. Next to Jacob and Alice, she was becoming a good friend of mine. "What's up, Ang?

"You look amazing!" She smiled brightly at me, while I blushed.

"Thanks," I said, and gestured for her to sit next to me so she'd be more comfortable.

"Did Edward like it?" Angela said while waggling her eyebrows at me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

She scoffed, "Bella, you know good and well what I'm talking about. Although you and Edward aren't 'official' yet, it's pretty clear that you guys are kind of together."

"Yeah, well I guess he did."

"Wait, now that I think about it... why _aren't _you guys together?" She scrunched up her eyebrows, obviously deep in thought as to why we aren't together by now.

"He wants to. And I do too. But it's just complicated."

She stared at me, confused. "How so?"

"Well, I might ask him out later on today." I mumbled.

"_You'll _ask _him _out? But you're the girl. I mean, you could. But it's tradition that the boy was the one who did the asking. Then again, it is the 21st century, women are more empowered now-a-days. I guess we shouldn't have to wai-"

I cut her off, "Ang, calm down. He _did _ask me out, but at the time I wasn't really ready to accept. Now, I am. Hopefully, I'm not too late."

"Oh." She mused, then smiled at me, "Believe me, you aren't too late. I feel like Edward would wait forever for you. You really don't see just how much he likes you."

The bell rang, meaning class was just starting. Angela quickly waved goodbye to me, and moved to her assigned desk.

The rest of class zoomed by uneventfully. Soon, it was time to go to Biology. Or in my case, _skip _Biology. I wasn't technically going to skip, I was just going to purposefully be late so I could talk to Edward.

I picked up my books and walked slowly down the hall to Edward's locker. I rounded a corner and walked a few more paces to find the right locker, and stood next to it. Not two minutes later, Edward came around the same corner, and smiled as he saw me.

"You made it." I said with a small smile of my own.

"So did you." He pushed my hair behind my ear, and left his hand their a second longer than necessary.

"Do you mind if we talk outside, on the bench? Just so no teacher will walk by, and see that we're not in class." I asked, already heading in the direction of the benches.

"Whatever you want, " He said.

We walked side by side, neither of us saying a word. I didn't want to start talking to him, until I had his full, undivided attention.

Soon, we were seated next to each other on the benches. The weather was really windy, but I didn't really care. "So do you want to go first, or should I?" I asked.

"I think I should." He said, and I made a gesture for him to continue.

He took a deep breath to steady himself and said, "Well Bella, I just wanted to say I was sorry."

Even though he just started talking, I was already confused. "What in the hell do you have to be sorry for?" I asked with a bit of an attitude. He was so self-sacrificing, that sometimes he didn't realize that he wasn't the one at fault.

"I kind of pushed my feelings onto you, the other day. I shouldn't have done that."

My eyes widened slightly in realization. "No, Edward. You should have let me gone first. On Friday, when you told me you knew I liked you, you were right. I do. A lot." I said slowly, gauging his reaction. "Do you remember when you first gave me a tour of your house?" I asked randomly.

His facial expression changed from one of surprise to bafflement. "Yes..."

"And you asked me what I was scared of?" I took one of his hands in both of mine, and stared down at them, instead of his eyes.

"Yes."

"Well, I said I was not afraid of anything. That was a lie." I said nervously.

"Well, what are you afraid of then?" He tightened his grip on my hands as a supportive gesture because they were shaking slightly due to my uneasiness.

I have never really told anyone the truth of why I never got into relationships. The only other person I told was Jacob, and that was only because I trusted him. He had asked me why I never had a boyfriend before. And after a long while of persuasion and coaxing from him, I told him the truth. He was a little surprised at first, then he simply replied with, "Love is an amazing thing that you can't experience without putting yourself out there first." I mulled over what he had said, and concluded that he was right. But the realization didn't make things any easier for me.

"Truth is, I'm afraid of getting into relationships. I'm afraid of trusting someone with my heart. You're vulnerable that way. And they have the ability to hurt you." I said quietly. After a few seconds of silence from him, I continued, "I don't even know why that is my fear. I guess I've always been that way."

I looked up at Edward, and I saw that he was smiling slightly at me. "Well, you don't have to be that way with me. You can trust me with your everything because I promise I won't hurt you."

"How do I know that?" I was surprised at how weak and vulnerable my voice sounded, and looked away from him.

Edward took my chin in his hand and made me look at him in the eye. "Just trust me..." He whispered. His voice was soft and comforting, but it somehow came at me seductively.

He leaned his head towards mine slowly, and I saw his eyes become transfixed on my lips. At the last second, they switched to my eyes, as if to see if I approved. A slow smile crept onto my lips that gave him the "go ahead" to continue. With that, he surged forward and captured my lips in his.

At that moment, I felt pure bliss. His lips were warm and steady against mine. Suddenly, it felt like my entire body was on beautiful fire. My hands found their way to Edward's bronze hair, and tugged on it, hard. Edward moved his hands to tightly grip my hips. My greedy side came out when I licked his bottom lip, practically begging for entrance. He moaned at the feeling and quickly opened his mouth to me, where we began a dance with our tongues.

We continued to kiss for like that for a while, but neither one of us minded. In fact, neither one of us ever wanted it to end. The wind rippled around us furiously, causing me to tremble. Edward sighed and reluctantly broke the kiss, but not before planting a few extra pecks on my lips before pulling away.

He smiled brightly at me and said, "Bella..."

"Edward..." I mocked him.

"You don't know how long I've waited for us to do that." He brought his hands to my face and gently caressed my cheeks with his thumbs.

"Let's do it again." I said.

He chuckled, but I cut him off by bringing my lips to his.

I felt like I could never grow tired of the feeling of his lips on mine. The wind decided to interfere once again, and blow violently around us, causing both of us to shudder. This time I pulled away from his lips, angry at the wind's constant interruption.

"We should go inside. It's cold out here." I said, while Edward kissed my cheek.

"I agree, but do we have to go class? I really do not want to go in there." He whined.

"Well, you don't have to, but I am." I really wanted him to go too because now that we were together, I never wanted to let him go.

"Bella, you know that means I'm going too." He smiled at me, and kissed me again. It seemed like I wasn't the only one who loved the feeling.

"We should get going then." I stood up, and he pulled me back down. But this time it was on his lap, not the bench.

"Before we do, I want to know something." He said seriously, which caused me to scrunch my eyebrows at him.

"What do you want to know?" I ran my fingers through Edward's hair, reveling in it's soft texture.

"Are we together? I mean..." He stuttered, before he took a deep breath and tried again. "Would you be my girlfriend, Isabella?" His piercing green eyes bore into mine.

I smiled at him, and touched his cheek. "Yes, Edward. I'd love to be your girlfriend." I answered truthfully.

His entire face lid up in excitement and his kissed me, long and hard.

**Edward's POV:**

Bella made me the happiest man on earth when she told me she'd be with me. All through Biology, I couldn't keep my hands off of her, even when I actually tried. We were watching another video on mitosis, but I couldn't care less. All I knew was that this perfect goddess sitting next to me was mine.

_Bella belonged to me._

That one fact made me feel like I was invincible, like I could do anything. I put my hand on Bella's knee and gave it a tight squeeze. Her eyes found mine, and she tried to look annoyed but her smile gave her away. I kissed her on the cheek, and continued downward, until I was just hovering over her lips.

Bella didn't really like public displays of affection. Well, that was what she whispered to me all through the film when I went to kiss her, but that didn't dismiss the fact that I still wanted to kiss her.

She sighed, and quickly pecked me on the lips before pulling away.

I didn't know what the big deal was when it came to kissing in public. One, it was dark, meaning no one would see us. Two, no one was paying attention to us anyway. Three, who cares if they did see us? When I voiced my thoughts to her she replied with, "Edward, I'm just uncomfortable with it, okay?"

I apologized to her because that was the last thing I wanted to do to her. Is make her feel uncomfortable. I knew with Bella, this was all new to her. So I had to take it slow, and I was okay with doing just that. Now that I finally had her, I never wanted to let her go.

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**A/N: THEY FINALLY GOT TOGETHER! I hoped you liked it! I wrote this chapter at 2 a.m. because for some strange reason everything was flowing perfectly then. Maybe I should start writing more at night...hmm... Anyway, I'm sorry if the Chapter 9 update confused you. I was trying to fix Chapter 1 because it had a lot of errors in it, but some things went wrong, and all my chapters ended up getting mixed up. Hopefully, their fixed now, if not I'll continue to work on them.  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**Edward's POV:**

Bella and I were sitting on the couch in my living room. She had one leg bent on the couch, while the other was situated on the floor. She seemed really infatuated with what was showing on TV, something about painting. But I lost interest after the first five minutes, and decided to watch her instead.

I had to remember to thank Alice and Rosalie for what they did to Bella. It's not that she wasn't beautiful before, she was. Now, she literally looked like my own personal angel. I wanted to know every single detail about this angel.

"I want to meet your parents." I announced.

Bella and I had been dating for a couple weeks now, and they had been the happiest weeks of my life, but I had yet to meet her parents.

"Okay." She said, though her eyes never left the TV.

"Bella, listen to me please." I took her chin in my hands, and forced her to look at me.

She raised her eyebrows at me and said, "What did you say?"

I smiled and removed my hand from her chin. "I said that I wanted to meet your parents."

"Why? Usually the boyfriend never wants to meet the parents." She turned towards me.

"I am your boyfriend, I _should _meet your parents. Plus, you've met my parents. It's only fair."

"Well, okay. If you want to. I live with my dad. My mom lives in another state, so.. you can't really meet her."

"I'll take what I can get."

"When do you want to meet him?" She asked, while reaching over to grab a grape from the bowl on the table.

"How about now?" I asked, already standing up and heading to the front door.

She pulled on my hand, causing me to stop. "He's at work right now. He's chief of police, and works at the station a lot. But you could still come over, I could show you around before he gets home." She stood up and turned the TV off.

"Alright." I answered simply.

We drove to her house in my Volvo. Ever since we've been dating, I've been driving her to and from school. She said that it wasn't that big of a deal, but I insisted. Within 15 minutes, we were sitting in her driveway.

It was a small, two-story white house, with dark green steps leading to the front door. "This is it." She opened the door and was already heading to the front door, before I even shut the car off.

I jogged to catch up with her. She took my hand in her smaller ones. "I'll show you around. Come on."

The inside was small, but comfortable. The living room had a big plasma screen TV in it, with a couch placed right in front of it. The kitchen was connected to the living room, and had your regular counters and sink in it.

"Yeah, it's pretty simple, but I love it." She said and headed upstairs. "We'll steer clear of Charlie's bedroom, so next is my room."

We entered her room, and I was kind of shocked at what I saw. Her room was fairly clean, but what shocked me was the fact that her walls were covered in tons and tons of artwork. Amazing artwork.

"Wow! You did all of this?" I asked unsure.

"Yes." She answered proudly.

"You're really good. How did you learn to do all of this?" I looked around her room, still amazed at how good these sketches and paintings were.

"I never learned," She said simply and continued, "I guess it was just born with me."

"You're extremely talented."

Most of it was different scenery, but some were of people. I walked over to her desk and saw a sketching of a guy. He was tanned skin, and pretty buff. He had a circular tattoo on his upper right arm, and cropped black hair. I instantly became jealous when I noticed that he was half-naked. His outfit only consisted of jean shorts, running shoes, and nothing else.

"Who's this?" I asked harshly, while pointing to the picture.

She walked over, and her eyes instantly softened when she saw what I was pointing at. "That's Jacob. He's my best friend. I've known him most of my life. You like?" She asked.

"No, I don't like. Why is he half-naked?" Any good boyfriend would be on alert, if they saw a picture of a half-naked boy in their girlfriend's room.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, calm down, Edward. That's just what he wears. He says and I quote, 'Shirts are totally over rated, that's why I don't wear them,'" She changed her voice to one of a guys' voice when she quoted this _Jacob _guy.

"Well, I don't like him." I said gruffly.

She smiled and put the sketch down, then picked up another one. "You don't know him. Now who's this?" She asked, then put the picture into my waiting hands.

It was a picture of... _me_. She got everything dead-on, from my tousled hair to my strong chin. It was amazing. "It's me." I stated the obvious, and mentally slapped myself for being so stupid.

"It is you." She nodded her head. "This particular sketch took me forever to complete."

"Why is that?" I asked curiously.

"For some reason, I just couldn't get you right. I'm always extremely picky when it comes to my drawings, but yours took me forever to finish. The hardest part was definitely the eyes. I thought it would be impossible to get them as striking and piercing as they are in person on a piece of paper. But I finally decided that this was as close as I could get to the real thing."

While she was talking, I never took my eyes off of the drawing. I had no idea what she was talking about. I thought everything was perfect, especially the eyes.

"I think it's perfect. Bella, you never cease to amaze me. You truly are an interesting creature." I put the drawing down, and watched her walk over to her bed and sit on it.

"Why thank you." She took a deep breath, laid down, and exhaled.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked, while leaning back against the desk.

She didn't respond for a few minutes, but eventually she said, "I don't know." A laugh escaped her lips before she tried again. "Everything, I guess. Have you ever just sat and... thought. Thought about anything and everything all at the same time." She lifted her head to see my response.

"No, I can't say that I have. Ever since I met you, your all that has consumed my thoughts. In more ways than one." I smiled at her.

She giggled, and patted the spot next to her. "Lay next to me."

I raised my eyebrows at her. "Are you serious?"

"We're not going to do anything, Edward. Just lay with me, and think."

"Okay..." I said warily. I walked over to the bed slowly, and laid down next to her. I'm guessing the whole purpose to this was to let my mind wander. But the only thing I _could _think about was the fact that I was home alone with Bella in her very comfortable bed.

I closed my eyes, and tried to think about something other than the sexual fantasies with Bella that were running through my head at that very moment, but I failed miserably.

After a few minutes of silence from Bella, I thought she had fallen asleep, but she surprised me by saying, "Tell me what your thinking."

"Um... honestly?" I asked. I opened my eyes to find Bella staring at me with a small smile on her face.

"Yes, honestly." She was so close to me I could literally feel her breath fan across my face.

I turned my body to face her. "Well, I'm honestly thinking about you. And how hot you'd look in a nurse's outfit." There was no point in lying.

She threw her head back and laughed. "You're useless."

She went to get up, but I stopped her. "Wait..." I whispered.

I pulled her to me, and brought my hands up to her face where I caressed her blushing cheeks. I leaned my head towards hers slowly, never breaking eye contact with her. After a few agonizing seconds, I finally felt her soft, warm lips against mine. Our lips moved in perfect synchronization, until I wanted more and gently bit her bottom lip.

She moaned, and brought her hands up to my hair, where they massaged my scalp. I hummed in response, and licked her bottom lip. She opened her mouth to me, and I instantly became greedy. I moved my hands to her hips, and rolled us over to where I was hovering over her tiny form.

Surprisingly, _she _was the one that started grinding into _me_, not the other way around. I was pretty sure she could feel my hard erection every time she moved into me. I moaned and her hands tugged even harder on my hair. At this rate, I would become bald soon, but I didn't care, just as long as Bella was the one who did it.

"Bells! I'm home!" I heard a man's voice say causing Bella to become tense underneath me.

"Shit!" She cursed and pushed me off of her. I reluctantly got off of her so she could get up.

"Is that your dad?"

"Ye-"

"Hey Bells! Get down here, would ya?" Another man's voice interrupted her.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"That's my dad and... Jacob." She said slowly.

"Oh."

"Okay, I'll go downstairs and greet them, and you go in the bathroom and... fix yourself." She blushed and looked away.

"What do you mean?"

She pointed down and my eyes instantly widened when I saw that I was rock hard. "Look what you did!" I said jokingly, but secretly serious at the same time.

She laughed and said, "Sorry. But please be quick with it, okay?" With that, she quickly left the room and headed downstairs.

I scurried off to the bathroom, and released myself. Once that was done, I washed my hands and slowly walked downstairs to meet the most important people in Bella's life.

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**A/N: LOL! I felt like a total pervert while writing this chapter! Sorry for the long wait, but hey...I'm a lazy person. REVIEW!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Bella's POV:**

I slowly made my way downstairs, taking time to collect myself.

I was still slightly high from the feeling of Edward's lips on mine, and his body pressed tightly against mine. I was kind of surprised at myself for being so ... physical with him, so soon. I was usually extremely reserved to those who I haven't known for very long, but with Edward it became different. It was so easy opening up to him, in more ways than one. When we talked, words that have been left unspoken for so long seem to flow effortlessly out of my mouth. When we touch, an internal fire is ignited and my body literally craves for more.

I walked into the kitchen and saw Charlie and Jacob hunched over the counter. "Ah hem." I pretended to cough to gain their attention of my presence.

Both of their heads popped up in surprise and they turned to face me. "Hey, Bells!" Jacob said, while putting his pizza down and clapping his hands together to remove the crumbs from them.

Charlie simply waved at me, seeing as his mouth was stuffed with peperoni pizza.

"Hey, Jacob. You didn't tell me you were coming over today." I walked over and gave him a hug.

"Dude, this is like my second home. It's not like I need an invitation to come here." He smiled, and walked over to the fridge to get a few cokes.

"That is true." I nodded.

"So, what have you been up to, Bells?" Charlie asked, while catching a coke Jacob threw at him.

I hesitated. I couldn't necessarily tell Charlie that I was just upstairs, in my room, making out with my boyfriend, on my bed, causing him to get a huge boner so I sent him to the bathroom so he could relieve himself a.k.a masturbate. Charlie was a cool parent, but he wasn't _that _cool.

"Um, I was upstairs studying... with Edward." I said slowly, gauging Charlie's reaction.

"Who's Edward?" His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

"He's my boyfriend?" I really wished Edward would hurry up, so I wouldn't have to face the sharks alone.

"You have a boyfriend?" Jacob asked incredulous. His eyes became wide, and his jaw dropped.

I guess I should have expected Jacob to be surprised about hearing the news of my finding a boyfriend. I swore that I wasn't girlfriend material, and maybe I wasn't to any other guy but Edward.

"Maybe," I said.

"Well, where is he? Am I ever going to meet this Edward fellow?" Charlie put his pizza down, and crossed his arms.

"Yes, he had to use the bathroom. He should be down in a few minutes." I silently prayed that it wouldn't take him a few minutes, hopefully he'd be down here and present in a few seconds.

"Hey, everyone." Edward said nervously.

We all turned around, and my eyes instantly went to his penis to make sure the situation was resolved. And I internally let out a huge breath when I realized it was gone. That would have been so embarrassing.

"So your the boy my daughter is dating?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, sir. I'm Edward Cullen." Edward put out his hand for Charlie to shake, but he just blew it off and pretended as if he didn't see it.

"Let's talk in the living room, shall we?" Charlie led the way to the living room, and Edward obediently followed, but not before he winked at me behind Charlie's back, causing me to smile at him.

"What do you think they're talking about?" I asked Jacob while picking a pepperoni off a piece of pizza, and eating it.

"What made you decide to get a boyfriend?" Jacob asked without answering my question.

"I didn't really decide, technically. I just did. I like Edward, Jacob. So I took your advice, and put myself out there, and said yes to him." I explained.

He smiled when I said that. "I'm proud of you, Bells! But I hope you know, both Charlie and myself will be questioning this guy to make sure he is the real deal. I trust your judgement Bella, but I have to check him out for myself also." He said sternly, as if he were my father.

"Jake, you're not my father. Charlie is, so I guess he has the right. But you don't, never forget that. You know me, Jake. Don't try to run me because it won't end well for you." I warned.

He held his hands up to surrender. "I'm sorry. I keep forgetting we're not little kids anymore, huh? Boy, have times changed. My little sis has her first boyfriend!" He ran over to me and pulled me into a soft hug.

Jacob always made me feel better when he hugged me like that, it made me feel safe. And his scent was so nostalgic. He had the scent of my childhood, and it made me smile every time I got a whiff of it.

Suddenly, his arms got tighter and tighter around me, before he lifted me up into the air and threw me over his shoulder. "Jacob, put me down!" I said, while laughing.

"No way, little sister." Jacob spun around, making me dizzy.

"Jacob Ephraim Black put me down this instant!" I tried my hardest to sound daunting, but I just couldn't hold back the round of giggles that erupted from my mouth.

"Bells, you're not scary, you know that?" He asked, while walking in some random direction.

I bit his lower backside, seeing as it was the closest body part to me. He yelped in surprise and instantly dropped me on the couch. "Geez Bella! All you had to say was put you down!" He rubbed the spot I had just bitten.

"That's all I did say!" I argued, and smiled when he shrugged and sat down on the floor in the direction of the TV.

I looked around and realized Jacob dropped me on a very surprised Edward's lap... in front of my dad. I blushed and scrambled off to sit beside him.

Charlie didn't seem to like that very much seeing as his eyes were slightly narrowed towards Jacob, but he didn't say anything about it.

"So, what did you guy talk about?" I whispered to Edward since Jacob and Charlie were engrossed in the game that was playing on TV.

"Um... nothing much. Just getting to know each other is all." He replied. I noticed a hint of hesitation in his voice, but ignored it.

* * *

**Edward's POV:**

"Let's talk in the living room, shall we?" Charlie said, and I instantly followed, not wanting to upset him.

He waited until we were both seated to start talking. "So tell me about yourself, Edward."

"Well, there's not much to say. You know both my parents, Carlisle and Esme Cullen. I have an older brother, Emmett, and an adopted sister, Alice. I make pretty good grad-" Charlie interrupted me.

"Edward, this town is pretty small, wouldn't you agree?" He asked randomly.

"Yeah, I guess it is." I instantly became suspicious.

"Since we live in a small town, I hear things." He said cryptically and continued, "Everyone knows everyone else's business. I know your business and I'm pretty sure you know mine." He said, and I instantly knew what he was talking about.

"The Player" thing was back. But this time it was threatening something really important to me. Bella and I's relationship. I was not going to let this out-of-control lie affect the best thing in my life.

"Sir, with all due respect, I know what your talking about and it's not true. I know the word around town is I'm a player. I'm not an idiot, I hear what people say and think about me, and it couldn't be further from the truth. I'm not what you think." I said defensibly.

"Edward, calm down. I'm not judging you, I'm simply telling you what you already know. As a father, you have to know my concerns about you dating my daughter. This is how I see it: You've never been in trouble with the law. You have pretty good parents. And besides that little tiny rumor going around, there are no reasons for me to not like you. I just want to make sure that you will not hurt my daughter in any way." He said calmly.

"I promise to never hurt her, ever. That's the last thing I ever want to happen. Bella told me that I was her first boyfriend, and I will never abuse that fact." I said honestly, while looking in his eyes.

"Good." He said, then returned his attention to the TV. "Just one more question, if that's okay?"

"Sure."

"Were you and Bella really upstairs studying like she says?" His eyes never left the TV.

_Shit!_ _No the hell we weren't._ _In fact, studying was definitely the last thing on our minds._

"Yes, sir!" I lied. There was no fucking way that I was telling Bella's father that we were upstairs making out like wild animals, that just was not happening.

"Okay..." He said, unconvinced.

A few minutes later we hear a commotion coming from the kitchen, and then see Jacob walking towards us with a struggling Bella thrown over his shoulder.

"Bells, your not scary, you know that?" He asked her.

She didn't respond, but a couple seconds later he yelled out loud, and dropped her onto my lap. Any other moment, I would have been tempted to kiss her, but her father was right there and that would have been super inappropriate.

"Geez Bella! All you had to say was put you down!" He rubbed the spot I'm guessing she just bit him at.

"That's all I did say!" She yelled at him, and then smiled.

She looked around and then met my very surprised eyes and when she realized she was situated on my lap, her eyes became wide and she scurried off my lap and moved to sit beside me instead.

I didn't dare look over at Charlie to see his reaction. I had a pretty good feeling that it wasn't anywhere near close to happy though.

"So, what did you guy talk about?" Bella whispered to me.

"Um... nothing much. Just getting to know each other is all." I said.

I stayed over for a couple more hours, just watching TV and whispering to Bella, seeing as we were the only two NOT watching the baseball game. I really wanted to go up to Bella's room and talk with her there in private, but I didn't really have the nerve to ask her father that. "I have to go." I announced to Bella.

"Oh, well I'll walk you out." Bella's face fell slightly, and I thought about staying over for maybe an hour more, but I quickly decided against it because I promised Esme I would be home around 11.

"That's okay, Bells. I can walk him out, I'm leaving anyway." Jacob said, while getting up and stretching.

I raised my eyebrows at him, but he chose to ignored me and headed to the front door.

"It was nice meeting you, Edward." Charlie stood up to shake my hand and walked upstairs.

"Likewise." I called after him.

"So, I'll see you at school?" Bella asked as we both stood up, but made no move to leave.

"You don't want to come over tomorrow?" I frowned.

She shook her head and said, "I can't. I've avoided doing my homework all weekend, so I really need to get it done before Monday. Okay?"

I pouted a little and made my eyes big to feign innocence. "Do you have to?"

She looked at something over my shoulder and then back at me before she quickly kissed my pouting lips, turning it into a full-blown grin. "Yes, now get out."

I laughed but hugged her hard and did as she said.

Jacob and I walked outside into the now dark night to our separate cars, none of us saying anything all the way there. Once we reached them, he decided to speak, "Hey man, as you know, Bella and I are extremely close. Always have been."

I watched him warily as he walked up to me and replied, "So?"

Once he reached me, I realized he and I were the exact same height. "So you seem like a cool dude, but..." He lowered his voice, making it sound threatening and continued, "...If you hurt Bella at all, I don't care if it's something as petty as a little scratch, if she's ever harmed by you, I will come after you without any hesitation. Do you understand me?"

I narrowed my eyes at him and clenched my jaw, "Is that a threat?" I asked in the same menacing voice.

"It is if you want it to be."

"Look, don't worry about me or Bella. I will never hurt her so you don't need to worry about that at all. Do _you_ understand me?" I got even closer to him, so we were face-to-face.

His whole demeanor changed from one of maliciousness to almost calm. "I'm just saying so we're absolutely clear. You hurt her, I'll hurt you." And with that he walked off into his car and sped down the road. I watch him until his rear view lights were no longer visible in the distance.

His little "threat" was absolutely unnecessary, there was no way in hell that I would ever harm my Bella... _ever_.

* * *

**A/N: YOU LIKE IT? Yes, Jacob and Edward had a little... altercation at the end, but that was just Jacob being a good friend. He doesn't want Bella to get hurt, so he threatened Edward a little to make sure that never happens. But best believe, Jacob will definitely follow through with his threat if it does... hmm maybe it will. Oh yea, and I decided to make Edward and Jacob the same height because I wanted to. REVIEW FOOL!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Bella's POV:**

"Do you want to go somewhere with me today after school ?" Edward asked as we walked to Biology together.

"Um..." I hesitated. We both had a huge test in Biology tomorrow, and I desperately needed to study or else I'd fail for sure.

"Sure, you do." He answered for me.

"What about the test for Biology tomorrow. Mr. Banner said it was 15% of our grade, meaning we can not fail. Have you studied yet?" I really doubted it.

"No, but who cares? We both listen well enough in that class that we'll pass that test easily." He shrugged his shoulders. Though I'd never say this out loud, I loved how easy going and optimistic he was.

"Obviously not you, but I definitely do. I don't want to fail, Edward. And you shouldn't want to either!" I poked him in the chest.

"Hey, unless you want both my books and yours splattered across this hallway, I suggest you not do that anymore." He laughed and removed my hand from his chest, but held onto it.

"I didn't ask you to carry my books, you know." I muttered.

He sighed. "Bella, we've been over this. I'm going to carry your books because I want to. And there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Got it?"

"Oh yeah?" I questioned. He nodded his head. I grabbed my books and took off down the hallway, leaving him in my dust. I looked back over my shoulder, and he stood there in shock. I decided to taunt him by flicking him off, causing him to snap out of his surprised state and start chasing after me. I slowed down my speed when I rounded a corner and pushed them even faster when I could hear Edward's footsteps and heavy breathing behind me.

Our Biology class came into view so I decided to slow down and let poor Edward catch up to me. Not five seconds later, I felt one arm being thrown around my waist, lifting me up into the air. I laughed and said, "Where have you been?"

"Wow Bella, I didn't know you could run that fast." He said in my ear.

I turned around in his arms to face him. "It's a gift. I'm probably even faster than you."

He quirked one eyebrow. "Doubt it."

I simply shrugged and said, "Let's race one day." I kissed him quickly on the mouth and jumped down from his arms. The little run had made me energized so I skipped into the classroom.

We took our seats in the back of the class a few minutes before the bell. "You never answered my question. Would you like to accompany me somewhere?" When I didn't respond, he continued. "Bella, what if I say it'll only take 30 minutes, an hour at the most. Just please! Come with me!" He begged.

I furrowed my eyebrows, wishing he'd drop it. "You are a horrible influence, you know?"

He smiled slightly, then nodded his head for me to continue. "Edward, please don't make me go!" I whined. I didn't want to just say no to him, but he was tempting me.

He huffed. "Fine, Bella. We don't have to go, if you don't want to." He looked so disappointed.

We sat in complete silence for a couple minutes, while I debated changing my mind. I guess an hour less of studying won't kill me. Plus, it would make Edward happy.

He still wasn't talking to me, but I didn't mind so much because I found it comical. "Edward?" I asked, while looking at the back of his head because he was turned away from me, staring out the window.

He didn't reply. I sighed dramatically and tried again. "Edward?" I asked in a firmer voice, and tapped his shoulder.

He turned around and raised his eyebrows at me. "What's wrong?" I asked dumbly, as if I didn't already know.

"What's wrong is... you don't love me!" I laughed loudly at this. "If you loved me, you would go with me!"

And I thought I was the drama queen. "Where do you plan on taking me?"

"I can't tell you."

I slumped my shoulders and said, "Only an hour, right?"

He smiled victoriously, and hugged the life out of me. "Thank you, Bella! I promise, you'll love it!

"Yeah, yeah." I waved my hand around.

The bell rang, meaning that class was just now starting. Mr. Banner started teaching us about cellular respiration, as if I'd care but I tried my hardest to retain the information he was telling us. But I ended up falling asleep for most of it. It wasn't until the bell rang again that I woke up. When I came to, I realized that my head was resting on Edward's shoulder, and his arm was wrapped around me with his fingers in my head.

I heard him chuckle and whisper, "Good morning, beautiful."

I groaned and rubbed my eyes. "Good morning."

"I hate to rush you, but we really should be going to our next class right now." His fingers continued to play with my hair, and I really liked the feeling.

"Okay," I moved to untangle myself from him when a thought popped into my head. "Why didn't you wake me? I shouldn't have gone to sleep!" I practically yelled at him. I should be more enraged at myself for falling asleep in the first place, but that much-needed nap felt too good to regret it.

He shrugged. "You looked really peaceful so I didn't want to disturb you. I mean, I would have if Mr. Banner had noticed that you were asleep, but he didn't. Plus, you fell asleep on my shoulder, and I could feel you breathing against my neck. It was calming."

I unwrapped his arm from around me, and gathered all my books. He looked at me, amusement clear on his face and said, "You aren't mad at me, are you?"

"No, I'm mad at myself. I should have stayed awake today. But thank you."

He stood up and picked up his books, then kissed me on my head. "Oh calm down, Bella you're always so hard on yourself. You need to loosen up."

"I'll loosen up after I take that stupid test tomorrow."

We went our separate ways, seeing as I had History and he didn't. When I walked in, I noticed Mike was sitting at my desk waiting for me. "What's up, Mike?" I set my books down, and scanned through my binder to find my homework.

"Um, nothing much." His ever-present nervousness always made me apprehensive.

"Ah-ha!" I yelled once I found it. He jumped slightly because of my outburst. "Sorry."

"It's o-okay, I wanted to know if you wanted to maybe... go on a date with me?" He looked down at his fingers while he stuttered.

I froze. Was he serious? Mike was a decent-looking guy, but he was too awkward for me. Plus, I had Edward. Mike didn't compare to Edward in any way possible. "I have a boyfriend, I'm sorry." I said softly.

He looked up at me. "Edward, right? Yeah, I heard about you guys. That doesn't matter ... to me."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well, it matters to me."

The bell rang, causing multiple kids to walk in the class and take their seat.

Mike stood up, and his usually nervous face turned to one of ferociousness. He walked over to me, his tall form hovering over my smaller one. "You don't really believe that, now do you?" He shook his head slightly and continued, "I always get what I want, Bella." He said and walked away with a confidence I never even knew was possible for him. His voice shocked the hell out of me. No nervous stutters. No uneven breaths. He sounded... daring. And that freaked me out. Who was this guy really?

I tried not to think about Mike's weird behavior all through class, but the way he kept looking at me made it impossible. He looked like he owned me. Like I was his own personal obsession for him to claim whenever he wanted.

His whole demeanor had changed. Instead of his usually slouched over form I was so used to, he looked totally at ease with his hands entwined behind his head and him leaning back against his seat.

The bell rang and I sprang out of my seat, and practically ran out of the class to the cafeteria.

The scared side of me decided to brush off Mike's insane behavior, and pretend as if it had never happened. I walked into the cafeteria and saw everybody was already at the table.

"Hey, Bella!" Angela said, causing everyone's attention to divert to me.

I quickly said hi to everyone, and walked to get my lunch. Out the corner of my eye, I saw Edward look at me questioningly and get up from his seat to follow me.

I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly and waited in line to get my tray. "Are you okay?" I heard Edward's voice ask me.

"I'm fine." I said.

I felt his hand rub up and down my back, trying to soothe me. "You don't seem fine." He insisted.

"I am." He took the hint that I didn't really want to talk at the moment, and sighed.

He leaned forward to kiss my temple and said, "Cheer up, baby. I can't have you in a grumpy mood when I take you to my surprise."

I smiled when I felt his lips on my skin. "An hour, right?" I clarified.

He laughed loudly. "Yes, an hour. Maybe two." With that, he walked away, leaving me to glare at his backside.

* * *

**A/N: What do you think? Next chapter will be up by Sunday! I think you can guess where Edward is taking Bella, but it'll be very sweet, I promise!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Bella's POV:**

"Okay, do you know what I want you to do now?" Edward asked me.

"What?" I stared at him. We were sitting inside Edward's Volvo, which was parked directly outside my house.

"I want you to take your fine ass upstairs, so you can change your shoes." I was instantly confused. What was wrong with the shoes I was currently wearing? What were we doing anyway? I looked down at the blue flats on my feet, but didn't see anything wrong with them.

"Why?" I scrutinized his face, trying to look for any sign of where he was taking me. I found none.

"Just do it. I don't want to hear any arguments, or smart ass remarks from you. All I want to hear is the sound of your footsteps going up those stairs." He said with finality and pointed to the door behind me. I scowled at him, causing his lips to twitch.

"Please." He said much softer. "Please, go change into some sneakers or something you can walk comfortably in." His bottom lip jutted out in the form of an adorable pout. So I immediately agreed and went upstairs to change.

I sat my book bag down onto my bed, and took one last glance at it before I went into my closet to find some comfy sneakers. I searched around for a few seconds before I found my grey Levi Payton shoes. They were comfortable to walk in, yet very fashionable.

Edward honked his horn from outside, and I huffed in annoyance. I walked to my window and pulled aside my curtain to stared at him. He was grinning at me and I flicked him off, automatically wiping that grin off his face. I shut the blinds and smiled in contentment.

I ran to his car and got in while he looked at my shoe choice. I pulled one foot into my lap so he could get a better look. "Do you approve?"

He pulled one side of his mouth up to form a crooked yet alluring grin that made my breath hitch every time I would see it. "I do."

"I love when you smile at me like that." I said truthfully. What was the point in lying anyway? Edward told me how beautiful I was on a daily basis. I wanted him to know I loved him just as much. Wait, _love? _Bella Swan is not falling in love! Is she? Am I?

"Like what?" He started up the car, and pulled out of my driveway only to speed down the road and make a sharp right.

"Like that crooked grin that you do so well? One side is always higher than the other. It's beautiful." I murmured while looking down at my hands.

He sighed in contentment. "You're beautiful," One of his hands reached over to hold both of mines tightly in his on my lap. "And you know what I love about you? I love the way that you always blush or look down at your hands when your slightly embarrassed. Or how you don't take anyone's bullshit no matter who they are. Or hmm... how about being able to make me smile without even trying? The list kind of goes on from there."

I blushed and looked down at our joined hands. His larger, paler one held my smaller one in his. I played with his fingertips with my other and said, "You forgot to mention the fact that I can literally kick your butt if you were to ever get out of line with me."

His eyebrows raised at my challenging remark. "Oh, I didn't forget to mention that."

"Edward Cullen, one day your bold ass attitude is going to get you into major trouble."

His thumb started caressing the back of my hand. "Well if it's by you, then I won't care."

I smiled at him which he happily returned. We both fell into a comfortable silence after that with only the sound of both our breathing and some classical music playing in the background to hear. I started to drift off to sleep but not before hearing, "Goodnight, my Bella. Sleep well. I'll wake you when we get there." I felt Edward's hand on my thigh, moving it in a rhythmic motion to help lull me to sleep faster. I was almost completely gone when I thought I heard a quiet whisper of, "I love you."

If I had heard Edward saying that he loved me, I knew for a fact that I was dreaming. It was still too early, in my opinion, for that. We had only been dating for about a month now. Granted, we had been friends for a while before we started dating, but it was strictly platonic between Edward and I back then, right?

I woke up to the sound of Edward whispering my name and his hands squeezing my thighs. "Bella," Squeeze. "Wake up for me, baby."

I opened my eyes slowly to the sight of Edward kneeling outside my opened door. "Are we there yet?"

"Almost. We actually have to walk the rest of the way, but it's not that far. I promise."

"Mm-hmm, well wake me back up when we get there." I murmured.

He snickered. "You have to get up, Bella. Come on, it's not far."

He finally coaxed me into getting out of the car. The sun was, surprisingly, shining extremely bright today. We were surrounded by tons and tons of green trees, and it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere.

Edward took my hand and pulled me into the right direction. I finally snapped out of my tired state to walk along with him. "What's so special about this place that your taking me to?" I wondered.

"Well, I actually like to think it's only a place I know about. It's a good place to escape off to when your overwhelmed or upset or anything. It's quiet." I was a little worried that Edward was going to end up getting us lost but he seemed to know exactly where he was going. We took a left turn at a tree that had a red shoe lace tied onto one of it's branches.

"How did you find this place anyway?"

He let out a breath. "When my family first moved here, I was only fourteen. Carlisle and I got into this huge argument about the differences between right and wrong. See, this one kid at my school started bullying me. He would say shitty things to me that I didn't really care about. At first, I didn't do anything because I thought he'd get tired and stop. That didn't happen. The things he said got worse, and Emmett begged to help me talk to the shit face, but every time I refused because I didn't want to need him every time I was in trouble."

"Like a pride thing?" I questioned.

He nodded. "I wasn't very temperamental, but anyone would get mad if you constantly bothered them, right?"

I nodded and he continued, "One day, he called my mother a whore and hit me, and I snapped. Up until then, it had always been subtle verbal abuse towards me, which I could easily handle. But when you talk about my family and physically attack me, is when I take it personally. So I hit him back. But instead of his weak ass push, I punched him... hard. And repeatedly. All those months of bullying were packed into those punches, and I ended up breaking his jaw, giving him a black eye, and bruising his rib cage."

I gasped quietly, not expecting that. "But how did you and Carlisle end up fighting?"

"The guy I attacked didn't want to come back to school to face me when he had healed so he transferred to another school. When Carlisle heard what I had done, he was sympathetic but he was also very disappointed in me."

"Why? Weren't you just sticking up for yourself?" I asked.

"That's what I thought I was doing. But Carlisle thought I was being overly aggressive. I argued that the fucker deserved what I did to him and Carlisle just kept saying that I went too far. So I got frustrated and yelled, 'Okay, I'll let any douche bag call my mother a whore and not do anything next time!' Then I ran out the house and wondered into the woods."

"And that's how you found it?"

"Yeah, I stayed there a couple hours or so before I went back home." We were both silent for a few minutes after that. He still looked upset about it, so I didn't say anything to him until I knew he was okay to talk.

"What happened when you got home?" I said quietly.

"Everyone was relieved. Carlisle apologized; Esme hugged the crap out of me. And both, Emmett and Alice scolded me for being so completely stupid."

I smiled slightly at the last part. I could totally picture them doing that. "Oh, I'm sorry."

He suddenly smiled and put his arm around my shoulders. "Don't worry about it. That happened a long time ago. Doesn't matter now." His other arm reached out in front of me to pull a branch out of the way. "Here we are."

I stepped through and saw the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my entire life. It was a clearing surrounded by evergreens. Randomly colored flowers scattered the grassy floor, making it look like a rainbow mosaic. The sun was directly overhead that would usually make it kind of hot, had it not been for the small breeze that came at just the right moment to cool us down. In the upper right corner of the clearing, I saw a small dock that connected to the bluest lake known to man. It looked like something out of a picture book.

"It's unbelievable." I said in awe.

Edward wasn't looking at our surroundings, he was looking at me, gauging my reaction. "I had the same reaction when I first saw this place."

"It takes your breath away." I reached down to pick up a blue flower, and marveled at it's soft textured petals.

"You do..." He said, and of course, I blushed at his words.

His fingers lightly touched my heated cheeks and he slowly grabbed the flower from my hand and put it behind my ear, making his eyes soften. I watched him with total adoration in his eyes, as he lifted my chin with his hands.

I leaned forward to gently press my lips against his. They moved against each others softly at first, but became more ardent and powerful as the kiss grew. I moved my hands to his shoulders, and he moved his to my waist. My lips sucked on his upper lip, while his nipped at my bottom one. Neither one of us breathed. Or moved. Or even made a sound, for we did not want to ruin the beautiful moment that had been manifested.

After a few more seconds, I heard a soft grunt escape from Edward's lips, causing a gentle moan to escape from mine. I felt his lips pull up into a smile against my own, and we slowly pulled apart from each other.

"My Bella..." He uttered, while looking into my eyes.

Mine were still transfixed on his now red lips. He sighed quietly before bending down to peck my lips once more. Satisfied, I looked up at him and said, "This moment is so... enchanting." I shook my head softly and continued, "I'll never forget this, Edward. Thank you so much."

He beamed and searched my face. "I'm trying so very hard to find one flaw about you, but I can't. You're perfect."

I stood on my tip toes to peck his cheek, and embraced him. I softly ran my fingers through his messy hair, reveling at it's soft texture. My fingernails grazed against his scalp, and I heard him sighed in complacency.

We stood there hugging for what seemed like forever, but was probably just a couple of minutes. "Can we lay down?" I asked. This moment was just too good to have to go back home and study.

"Sure." He laid down first and pulled me down on top of him, so I my head was tucked in his warm neck and his arms were wrapped securely around my waist.

Neither of us spoke a word as we laid together. To soon, the sun started going down and we knew that nightfall would be coming soon, which meant that we had to leave now or risk not being able to find our way back to the car.

"I don't want to leave." I said honestly, while nestling further into Edward's neck. I breathed in his scent, and tried to memorize it to keep it in my head to remember forever.

"Me neither." He whispered. "But we'll come back soon, I promise. Now that you've been here once with me, I feel like this is our meadow. It wouldn't be complete with just one of us here."

"Mm-hmm." I muttered.

He kissed the top of my head, lingering there for a few seconds. "We have to go, it'll be dark soon." His voice was hesitant.

"I know." I said.

We stood up and look around ourselves one last time, then at each other. He pecked me on the lips, and then on the forehead.

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to me: _I think I love you, Edward._

* * *

**A/N: There it is. I hope you guys liked this chapter because I had a lot of fun writing it. Next chapter will be up by Friday, May 13, 2011. It might be up before then, but no promises. Reviews always make me write faster! :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Edward's POV:**

Over the next few weeks, Bella and I's relationship grew even more. Everyday, we became closer and closer. The more I knew about her, the more captivated I was. For example, I found out that she didn't actually have a favorite color, unlike anyone I've ever met. It changed daily, depending on her mood. Also, she sometimes talked in her sleep. I found that particular fact very comical when she told me, but she said it was embarrassing. I wondered what kind of things she would say. Would she talk about her family? Her friends? Me, possibly? Hopefully, I would find out one day.

I had even gotten a little closer to her dad and Jacob. Naturally, Jacob would be at Bella's house almost every weekend just to hang out and watch sports with Charlie. Bella thought it would be good if I bonded with them, so every time Jacob came over, Bella would invite me as well and once I got there she would make up some lame excuse to leave, so it'd just be Charlie, Jacob, and me. After a while, she no longer had to force me to go. I wanted to. It was sort of fun to hang out with just the guys, even if one of the guys could possibly become my in-law one day. I brought Emmett and Jazz with me a few times, which made it even better.

We only had one more month of school left, before summer would start. I wanted to make this summer the best summer of my life, and I intended on making it happen. The day that we got out of school would also be the day that I planned on playing my new composition for Bella. I had been working on it for months now, ever since we started dating. I spent hours and hours on my piano everyday, working on this particular piece because I wanted it to be good. I wanted the song to embody her in every way possible. And especially, how she made me feel. It had to be perfect.

"Hey, you in there? Where did you go?" Emmett waved his hands in front of my face.

I smacked his hands away from me. "No seriously, you totally spaced out. What are you thinking so hard about?" He asked.

"Nothing really. Just thinking about how I should play my song for Bella?" I scrunched my eyebrows up.

Emmett rolled his eyes and let out a breath. "You mean 'The Song' that you've been putting together for forever! Dude, that's all you do now-a-days. Well, except for hang out with Bella, of course. Just play it for the girl. You know she's going to love it. Hell, when I heard it for the first time, I even shed a fucking tear."

I laughed out loud at that. "I knew it! You tried to cover it up with a damn cough, but I swear I saw something run down your face! Wow, I really am good, aren't I?" I looked over at him and saw that he had a little pout on his face that made me laugh even harder.

"Okay, don't get cocky now. You still have to face Bella. Dude, she's tougher than all of us. So just because I shed a tear over the stupid song, doesn't mean she will."

My face fell. "Shut your ass up and go to your locker!" I yelled and pushed him in the direction of his locker.

He smiled a toothy grin and started walking in the direction I pushed him in. "Don't get mad at me because I'm right, punk!"

I walked down the hall to my locker to get my books for my next class and waited there for Bella. Five minutes later, I felt someone wrap their arms around my waist from behind. I looked down at their hands and instantly knew they belonged to Bella, but I decided to toy with her a little. "If this is Emmett, I will kill you." I joked.

She tightened her grip on my shirt in response. I felt her soft lips kissing random places on the back of my neck.

"Seriously, Emmett. I'm not kidding." I felt her lips turn up into a smile against my neck.

I turned around in her arms to face her and brought my hands up to hold her head firmly in between them. "Hey..." She whispered against my lips.

"I missed you this morning." I didn't get to drive her to school, like I had done every single day since we started dating because she pulled an all-nighter to prepare for her finals and woke up late the next morning.

"Good." She pecked my lips once more before removing my hands from her face with hers and stepping away.

"Did you at least do well on your final?" I asked.

She nodded her head. "I won't know what I made on it until next week. But I think I did fairly we-" Her phone started ringing.

She pulled it out of her back pocket and looked at it first to see who was calling before pressing the accept button. "What you want, fool?" She greeted teasingly.

I couldn't make out what the other person was saying, but it sounded like a guy's voice.

"Yeah, he's right here. You want to talk to him?" She asked the guy on the phone.

She smiled slightly at me as she waited for a response. "Okay, one second. Edward, Jacob's on the other line. He wants to speak to you." She handed me the phone.

I put the phone up to my ear. "Am I in trouble?" I joked.

He laughed. "Man, me and my friends are going biking this weekend, and I was just wondering if you wanted to come. I would ask Bella, but she's going to be busy studying and shit."

My eyes widened. "Fuck yes! I'm definitely going! I just got this new motor bike that I've been dying to try out!"

"Cool, I'll see you there. Just come down to the reservation on Saturday at noon."

"Alright." I ended the call.

"Aw look at you guys. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were bonding!" She mock punched me in the chest.

"Yeah, whatever. I'd rather bond with you..." I trailed off seductively, hoping she'd catch my drift. Her small smile and raised eyebrow told me that she definitely did.

"One day you will..." She said just as seductively. I froze, and stared at her hungrily.

The bell rang and she laughed at my expression before quickly kissing me and running off to her next class. I stood in the hallway just thinking about her for a few minutes, not caring about the fact that I was super late for my class. How in the hell did I get Bella? I knew I didn't deserve her at all, but for some reason this beautiful goddess belonged to me! Life wasn't fair, but I was extremely grateful for that.

I felt a long, manicured nail run up and down my arm. I recoiled away from it and turned around to see who touched me. I instantly groaned when I saw who it was. It was Jessica. "Yes, Jessica?" I tried to say as politely as possible, though the fact that I didn't really feel like talking to her definitely showed through my facade.

She flattened her short shirt down, which ended up pulling it down to expose her chest even more. "Why aren't you in class, Eddie?" I grimaced at the hideous name and shrugged.

"I was thinking." I said simply, while inconspicuously taking a small step away from her.

"About what?" She took a bigger step towards me.

"Just random stu-" She cut me off, even though she was the one who asked me the fucking question in the first place.

"Anyway, would you like to go out with me this weekend?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, pushing them up so they didn't sag as much as usual.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. "Jessica, you know that I won't. I'm not trying to be rude, but this is really getting old. You know that I'm with Bella. You know that I want to be with Bella. _And_ you should very well know that I fucking love Bella. So no, I will not go out with you this weekend. Sorry." I said.

I started to walk off in the direction of my class, but she put a hand on my arm and pulled me closer to her. "Hold on, you shouldn't be angry at me, babe. I'm just saying that you deserve better. You deserve someone that fits into your lifestyle, and that isn't Bella." She thought.

For some reason, that made me laugh. "You know, that was actually so wrong it was funny, Jessica."

I saw her eyes briefly look at something behind me and then they returned to my face. I went to move away from her again, but this time she pulled my head down to her lips. I felt her crusty lips on mine for a second before I tried to pulled away, but her hands tightened around my head to keep me trapped there. I winced and reached behind my head to remove her shitty hands off of me, and took a step away from her.

I stared at her like she was crazy and she said, "That was amazing, babe." She then fucking winked at me, and walked away in the opposite direction.

I made another face at her retreating form, and then turned around to head to my class and hopefully a water fountain so that I could rinse the taste of whore off my lips, but I literally stopped in my tracks.

My eyes widened at the sight of Bella standing before me. Her beautiful heart-shaped face was contorted into one that resembled total betrayal. Her narrowed chocolate brown eyes showed complete hurt. Her eyebrows were scrunched up in confusion. Her pink lips were pursed.

I gasped. "Bella? Please! Please, let me explain!" My feet started walking me towards her, but she backed away from me.

She stared at me for a moment, before her entire countenance changed. It now showed extreme anger, that had even me cowering back in fear. Slowly, she walked towards me and reached for something in my hands. I looked down, and realized I still had her cell phone, which explains why she came back. She grabbed it and started walking away.

I ran after her and grabbed her so she couldn't walk away from me again. "Please let me explain!" I begged her.

"No." She stated in a monotone voice, hinted with subtle anger.

"Bella! Let me explain! She fucking kissed me!" I squeezed her arms tightly.

She nodded her head once. "Okay."

I looked at her, baffled. "What?"

She removed my hands from her arms and brought her hands up to my head to pull my forehead down to her level, where she placed a single kiss. She turned my head slightly to the side and whispered in my ear, "We're over."

I looked at her. She was apathetic, not one emotion reflecting on her face. I felt a wave of tears hit me as I realized what she had said. She walked by my unmoving form, and I saw a single tear run down her face.

This was the first time I saw her cry.

* * *

**A/N: Hey, I had to add excitement to this story somehow. Review and tell me what you think!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Edward's POV:**

_What the fuck?  
_

One minute I was at the pinnacle of my life with Bella Swan on my arm. Every aspect of my life had improved drastically because of her. My grades were pretty good, thanks to Bella helping me study for tests that I would have otherwise failed, had it not been for her. My family became so much more happy as well and we all finally felt complete. Esme and Carlisle would practically beam at us whenever they saw us touch each other. Esme was completely elated to see that I had finally found someone, and I was no longer a loner. My sister had found a best friend in Bella; though they were completely different, they still mixed and depended on each other. Like yin and yang. Emmett saw Bella as a little sister, one that wouldn't take his crap. They even wrestled sometimes, which usually resulted in Bella winning since Emmett would never really hit her. His girlfriend, Rose, and Bella were the last to connect, but when they did they found out that they had way more in common than expected. Their similarities circled around their fiery personality and stubbornness. Her brother, Jasper, and Bella were always engrossed in deep intellectual conversations; ones that never failed to bored the crap out of me, but Bella seemed to really enjoy them.

We were all better off with Bella in our lives, but now it's all fucked up.

I had been moping around for the last couple of weeks, since Bella broke up with me. I couldn't help it. I tried text messaging and calling her. I even tried going over her house a few times. But each time I was met with the same harsh glare from Charlie, and was told that Bella wasn't there or didn't want to speak to me. I hadn't heard from Jacob yet, but I was going to take that as a blessing in disguise. I still remembered his threat when we first met, and had a feeling that he intended to own up to it the next time he saw me.

Of course, I still saw Bella in school, but she refused to talk to me, or even acknowledge my precise, except once, a couple days ago:

* * *

**Flashback (A couple days ago)**

_I walked into the school with everyone breathing down my neck about why I decided to looked like crap, even though deep down they already knew the answer. I had told them that Bella broke up with me after about a week of it happening because of their insane pestering.  
_

_"Yo, Ed man. You really need to get out this slump that your in. I'm always here if you need someone to talk to, okay?" I heard Jasper's calming voice say._

_"Thanks Jazz, but no thanks." I croaked out politely. _

_I slouched through my classes, not really caring about the questioning glances and surprised stares my classmates had been giving me for the last two weeks, pertaining to my outrageously drab outfit consisting of grey sweats and a dark, gloomy air I probably carried around myself. _

_Finally, the bell rang, which meant it was time for Biology. I practically ran out of the room and towards my next classroom, making me the first student in the class. A few students from the other period still lingered until it was just Mr. Banner and me left. _

_Now, it was time to play the waiting game. It would only be a few minutes before Bella would walk through that door, and sit next to me, giving me the perfect opportunity to plead my case to her once more and pray that she'd take me back. I would always try to talk to her but after she wouldn't respond to any of my pleas I'd get discouraged and quit. Not this time. She was going to hear me out.  
_

_Mr. Banner left the classroom grumbling to himself about not having enough bathroom breaks throughout the day, and told me I should get started on the assignment since I was a few minutes early._

_No thanks._

_Fate decided to serve in my favor today because not two minutes after I sat down, Bella walked into the classroom. She, unlike myself, was able to look perfectly fine. In fact, she looked even better than usual today. She wore a long, floor-length, brown skirt that hugged her hips and flared out as it went down. Her plain white v-neck shirt gathered at the bottom and was tied into a secure little knot at the side, ending right above where her skirt started, showing a slither of pale skin. Her hair was tied into a tight bun that showed off her beautiful face, which was makeup-free except for the subtle red lipstick. The only fault in her alluring physical armor were her eyes. They were slightly red and puffy, like they had been everyday since we broke up. _

_"Bella..." I started, right as she sat down beside me._

_I watched as she took a deep breath and turned in my direction to face me. She cocked an eyebrow, signaling for me to continue. That was new.  
_

_My mind went completely blank when I locked eyes with her. She tried putting up a front of indifference and coldness, and if I hadn't known her so well I would have believed it easily. But because of the fact that I studied her countenance whenever possible, I could not be fooled as simply and knew better. Behind the masked defenses, I saw her adopt this calm detachment, a sign of resignation. She was done crying about it. __To know that I caused her to cry in the first place, hurt like hell. _Had it not been for the slight grief and hesitation that still lingered there, refusing to leave, I would have abandoned the crazy - yet completely realistic - notion that we could somehow forget all this ever happened and get back together.  


_"I'm so sorry, baby." I gripped her hands tightly in mine, not allowing any space to come between them. I tried with all my might not to grimace when I felt hers flinch within mine. "I know what you saw. And I know how it looked, truly I do. But I swear to you, I did _not _cheat on you. I promise, I would never, ever do that to you. Not just because I would never want to hurt you, but also because it would fucking kill me as well. When you hurt, I hurt. It's as simple as that." _

_Her face told me that she seemed to be deep in thought about something. As if she were doing a complicated math equation, one that she just wasn't understanding but tried like hell to solve.  
_

_"Bella, I haven't slept well since you broke up with me." The sympathetic look that she got in her eyes when she saw the dark purple bags that had formed under mine told me that she believed me. "I don't know what else to say, I've tried so hard to get you to believe me, it seems like you just stopped trying." My head lowered and with all my efforts, I tried not to look like a total bitch and cry in front of the woman I loved, but my efforts were futile when a tear rolled down my cheek and fell on top of her hand. _

_"I can't have you hate me. Please. Please, say you believe me, baby." I knew I sounded like the saddest piece of shit imaginable, but I didn't care at the moment. _

_She pulled one of her hands away from mine and wiped away the tear that had fallen on her hand with her index finger, and onto her skirt. Then, she took my chin in her hands and tilted it up so she could look at me. Her eyes narrowed as she scrutinized my face for a while, until she dusted away the tear on my cheek as well. _

_I looked at her and her defense seemed to waver slightly. _

_"I believe you." She whispered._

_My eyes got as big as saucers in that instant, and I couldn't contain the goofy grin that spread across my face. "You do?" I nearly shouted._

_"Yes, I do." __She looked so scared when she answered me. I wondered why that was, but my excitement engulfed then completely swallowed my mere curiosity. _

_I pulled her into my arms and hugged her to me as tight as I could, but what she said next nearly robbed the breath out of me. "But I still can't be with you..." She said softly but with force._

_My body froze right when I heard the world "can't". I pulled back and looked at her face. "I thought you said you believed me." I didn't care to hide the hurt and disappointment that rang clear as day in my voice._

_"I do. But that doesn't mean I can be with you. I'm sorry." She pushed my arms off of her and turned to the front of the class. _

_I'm pretty sure I looked like I was about to wet my pants at any moment, but I really couldn't believe what just happened. "I don't u-understand." My voice wavering, and cracking. "Why?"_

_"I just can't. That's all there is to it." She said, without looking at me. Her voice was hard. Her guard was back up._

_Full-blown anger surged throughout my whole entire body. I just told her that I didn't cheat on her and she says she believes me, but she won't be with me? I can't take that. I'd rather she just believe I had cheated on her, if she was going to pull this crap on me. I literally felt like she had just set off a ticking time bomb somewhere inside me. _

_Confusion. Anger. And Coveting. Not a good combination._

_My hands balled up into tight fists. I tried to steady my irrational breathing, but it was no use. I was livid. "You don't give a damn about me, do you? I know you don't! If you did, you wouldn't do this kind of shit to me! You wouldn't fucking kill me like your doing, Bella. I've never in my entire life, put myself on the line as much as I have with you. And... it's like you just slapped me in the face. I know you have some kind of guard up, but thanks to you, so do I!" I yelled at her._

_She bit her lip, trying not to cry in front of me, but otherwise ignored me completely._

_ "I... I fucking love you, but you don't care do you."__ I whispered. I realized this was the first time I'd ever told her that I loved her and I wished it was on better terms, but oh well. It's not like I can take it back now.  
_

_Her eyes widened and her head snapped in my direction. "You what?"_

_I gave her a small sarcastic smile. "Did you not hear me? I said, 'I fucking love you.' I mean it. I do. I don't think I was ever given a choice about loving you." I stood up and paced around the room, while tugging on my hair. _

_"I... I d-don't know what to s-say." She admitted._

_I took my books and threw them at the board at the front of the room, the loud noise caused her to jump up from her seat in surprise. I noticed my already beat-up books were now completely destroy. The front cover fell off most of them, as well as the back on some.  
_

_I was so tired of putting myself out there, and looking like an idiot in return. I understood that she was scared, but so was I! That doesn't mean you fucking run from it. Like she's doing. _

_"Of course not, Bella! Your too busy being scared shitless to say what you really want to say! What your just itching to say!" I took a nearby table and flipped it over, one of the legs breaking off in the process. Then, I took the bar stool that was situated next to the now broken table, and threw it across the room, hearing the sailing noise as it flew through the air only to hit the TV in the middle of the room, causing it to crack and break the TV. _

_"Edward, you need to calm down." She tried to say in a authoritative voice, though it sounded more fearful to me. She took a couple tentative steps towards me, her hands outstretched, ready to touch and comfort me, but I recoiled from it.  
_

_"Why does it matter! Who cares about any of this shit anyway? I know I don't give a fuck!" I shouted at her. Satisfied, when I saw her flinch. _

_I turned around to find the next thing to throw, and settled for a large wooden chair in the corner of the room. I took it and chucked it against the concrete wall with all my force. Smiling slightly, when it broke into a million pieces. _

_All of my rage somehow disappeared when I heard all those wooden chips hit the hard floor. I stood there, unmoving. My eyes were tightly shut; my breathing was ragged and unsteady. When I became calm enough, I opened my eyes to assess the situation._

_Yup... everything I touched was pretty much destroyed. After my little temper tantrum, I noticed I was crying... heavily and so was Bella. And that Mr. Banner was standing in the doorway._

_"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY CLASSROOM!" He screamed at us, eyes practically bugging out of his head.__ His face had gone beet red from the anger._ If things hadn't been so tense and serious, I probably would have laughed my ass off at his outrageous face.  


_"It was all my fault, Mr. Banner. Don't worry, you don't have to ask me to leave. I'll gladly leave on my own." I said in a menacing voice, as I stared at Bella. She looked scared. And guilty. Good.  
_

_And with that, I turned my back on her and stormed out of the classroom._

**End Flashback**_  
_

* * *

"Edward, open this damn door!" I heard Alice say from the other side of my locked door.

"No," I mumbled.

"Stop with the stupid pity party, and open the door." She yelled, while banging on the door with her tiny fists.

When I didn't answer her, I heard a rustling sound come from the door knob. A few seconds later, the door sprang open causing me to jump up.

"What the hell?" I screamed at her.

She grimaced, and made herself at home by sitting down on my bed. "Explain." She demanded. Her brown eyes were slit into glares.

My shoulders slumped in defeat. I walked over and sat next to her on my bed. After a few seconds I took to collect myself, I whispered, "She broke up with me. I tried to get back with her. She refused." My voice sounded so small and broken. I hated that I sounded so weak and cowardly, but that's honestly how I felt at the moment.

She huffed in annoyance. "I knew that already. Bella told me." I could tell by her voice, that she was trying to stay calm. Bella was her best friend, and the fact that she's hurt because of me doesn't really sit well with her.

I rubbed my hands over my face. "I tried so hard to be with her. I tried to convince her to believe that I didn't cheat on her. And she said that she believed me. I was so happy, Ali. I thought she'd be with me, but no. Of course not. Of course it wasn't that easy. Things are never that easy with Bella. She told me that she couldn't be with me. I was crushed. And I got mad."

She rolled her eyes as if she couldn't believe how stupid I was. "So you decide to trash a classroom, causing you to get suspended for a week?"

It was true. My little temper tantrum caused me to get suspended from school for an entire week, a couple weeks before school ended. I would have to make up my missed time in summer school. But only a week, so I didn't really care. It would've been worse if my parents hadn't convinced the principle to keep me out for only a week by offering to pay for everything that I broke, and donate even more money to the school. Money can't buy you everything, but it sure does come in handy. "You don't understand. You don't realize how frustrating it is to try _so_ damn hard, and have it all blow up in your face. I feel like I want her so much more than she wants me." I ran my hands through my hair in frustration.

Alice's hard gaze melted into one of pity. "Edward, I may not know exactly what your going through, but I do know Bella. And yes, she is a tough cookie. For some reason, she has trust issues. She won't put her heart on the sleeve for just anybody. Even though you didn't cheat on her, the fact that she thought you did for just a split second was long enough for all her trust in you to dissipate. It sucks. I know. But that's the way it is. It's like starting from scratch again except now, your at a disadvantage." She said softly.

I stared off into space as I recalled the reason Bella didn't want to be with me. "Fucking _Jessica Stanley _kissed me! When I tried to break the kiss, she tightened her hold on my head so I couldn't go anywhere. So I had to wait until the bitch was done." I snarled her name.

"I know, I know." Was all she said. "But you want Bella back, right?"

"Of course I want her back. I want her back more than anything in the world. But I'm... tired." I whispered.

"What do you mean your tired?"

"I mean, I can't fight for her anymore. If we do get back together, it's going to have to be her doing. I'm not going to bother her anymore." I decided. "I can't take one more rejection. I have to think about me, you know?"

She looked like she was about to argue with me, but decided against it and nodded. "I think that's pretty dang smart, bro." She opened her arms to me, and gave me the best hug that I've had in a long time.

"What's going on in here?" Emmett asked from the doorway. Emmett was indifferent about the whole thing. He believed that everything will work out in the end, and that it was better if he didn't get involved.

"Nothing... Alice is just being the best sister in the world." I looked over and smiled gratefully at her. One of which she returned.

"Well, I try." She said cockily, while popping her nonexistent collar, seeing as she was wearing a black tank top.

"Edward, why is your doorknob broken?" Emmett asked, while twisting the broken knob.

"Alice, what the fuck did you do to it?" I stared at her.

She popped up from her spot on my bed and walked out the door while yelling out, "Drastic times call for drastic measures. I tried to pick the lock but I think I broke something. Don't worry, I'll make sure to buy you a new one."

Emmett let out a long whistle. "Sisters..."

We shared a knowing look. "Tell me about it."

Emmett took a couple steps into my room. "Dude, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You know, with everything that's going on... it's a lot to take on."

I let out a breath. "Yes... I just lost the love of my life even though I didn't do anything. _And _I got suspended from school because I couldn't control my temper. Life is just peachy right now." I said sarcastically.

He didn't seem fazed by my smart ass comment. "Look, just stay strong man. I kind of overhead a.k.a eavesdropped on part of you and Alice's conversation." He admitted bluntly and continued, "and I think your doing the right thing. You've tried all you could, and now it's her turn." His voice was oddly more mature than usual. "I know it'll suck if you lose her. It'll suck for all of us. But that's life. Sometimes you don't always get what you want. And if she doesn't try, just know that she isn't the one."

I know Emmett was trying to help me, and he was... to a certain extent. I didn't want to argue with him, but I _knew_ that Bella was the one. That's why I felt so entitled to fight so hard for her... for us.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe I heard the PS3 calling my name."

I chuckled at his childish behavior, and yelled a "thanks" to him as he walked away.

I went to get up and walked to my bathroom to shower.

_Siblings... can't live with them, but more importantly, you can't live without them._

* * *

_**A/N: Sorry for not updating in forever. But I've actually started writing the next chapter already, though it won't be up for a few more days. Wednesday, June 15, 2011, to be exact. P.S. I have actually picked a lock before, not really. I did the credit card thing to my brothers locked door, and it worked! I felt like a total spy :)**  
_


	17. Chapter 17

**Edward's POV:**

That one week of suspension went by pretty fast. Honestly, I wished for it to continue longer, though I knew I had to go back to school eventually. It was a lot easier to just focus on myself, and have fun when you don't have hundreds of students staring at you like your some sort of freak. Actually, the only thing I really did was play my piano and hang with Alice and Emmett whenever they weren't hanging out with everyone else. I missed Rose and Jazz a lot, but whenever the plans included them, they also included... Bella, and I was just not quite ready for her right now. Once in awhile, they would invite me to a little outing with everyone, but each time I politely declined. I knew they suspected that I'd say as much, but hoped I would change my mind each time, it just never happened.

I heard a light knock at my door and looked up to find Esme. She smiled when she saw my appearance. The fact that I didn't look disgusting is probably what pleased her. I wore a dark purple dress shirt, mostly because Alice kind of forced me to wear it, saying it made my green eyes stand out more. I couldn't really tell the difference but whatever. The dress shirt was unbuttoned to show my white undershirt. Emmett joked that I should do a couple sit ups before stepping out the house, apparently it made me look more buff. My dark jeans hung low on my hips, but I didn't sag them much further than that. It always annoyed me to no end, when I would see some guy with his pants so low, he can't even walk straight. I paired my jeans with my black doc martens.

"You look very handsome, Edward." She walked over to where I was sitting on my bed and tying my shoe, and ran her fingers through my unruly hair.

I chuckled and removed her hands from my head. "I tried, Mom. There's no use in trying to tame the untamable."

"It never hurts to try." She said and continued to try to make sense of my hair. After a few seconds, she claimed she was done. So I went into my bathroom to brush my teeth, and I must admit, it did look a little less crazy than the last time I saw it.

"You can say thank you whenever your ready, Sweetie!" She yelled from my room.

"I was getting to it. Thanks!" I yelled back.

I finished brushing my teeth and went back into my room to put my books into my book bag, noticing my mother's watchful eyes on me the entire time. It was beginning to make me feel self conscious.

"Dear mother, care to tell me why your staring at me?"

"What? I can't observe my son every now and again?" She questioned.

"You always have Emmett. Go and make him feel like the science experiment."

She shrugged. "Maybe later. I want to talk to you right now."

I looked at her cautiously. "Okay, what's up?"

"How are you feeling today?"

So that's where she was going with this. I understood her worrisome attitude, but I didn't think it was necessary. Because Forks is miniscule, news spreads quickly. I'm sure everyone has heard why I got suspended by now. The staring will probably be amplified once I return to school today. But she shouldn't be so anxious, I'm a man. I can handle them.

"I'm fine. What about you?" I said and laughed when I saw her narrow her eyes at me. She knew I knew what she meant.

"Seriously! I am fine. I can handle a bunch of crazy people with no lives, staring at me. Granted, it can be annoying at times. But what I did, wasn't _that _bad." She gave me a look that said she didn't believe me. "Okay, it was bad. But I've apologized, and it's in the past. Can we just move on? I don't really like being reminded of things that don't really have a purpose because they've already happened; they're over and done with. That's why I'm failing History." I joked.

She cracked a smile. "I just wanted to make sure." She hesitated but decided to continue anyway. "Crashing a classroom just isn't you."

"Love can make a man do some crazy things." I stated seriously.

"How is Bella doing anyway? I know Alice and Emmett hang out with her, but they never bring her around the house anymore."

"Beats me. I haven't seen her at all this week." I tried to keep my voice light and nonchalant, but my mother's sympathetic gaze told me I did not succeed.

"Oh Edward. I'm so sorry. Everything will work out in the end, you know that? It will. Just trust in that. You're what she wants, it will work out, somehow." She reiterated.

"And how would you know that?" I asked curiously, but quickly regretted it when I saw the look on her face. "What's wrong? What did I say?"

She waved her hand around like it was no big deal. "It's nothing, Edward." I scrutinized her face, and decided that she was lying, but she continued. "Do you remember the story of how I met Carlisle?" She said softly.

"Yes... weren't you his patient or something like that?" I wondered what this had anything to do with the conversation.

She laughed humorlessly. "I was his patient, yes. But do you know how I became his patient in the first place?"

"No." Although, I was genuinely curious as to how she ended up in the hospital.

Her face flinched, as if it was painful to recall the memory. Now, I was extremely interested in what happened, and wondered why I never thought to ask her before. She collected herself more, and I was just about to tell her that she didn't need to tell me if she didn't want to, or if she didn't feel comfortable telling me, even if I wanted to know, but she started talking.

"I had a beautiful baby boy, and a couple days later... he died." She whispered.

I gaped at her, but seeing as she was staring at her hands, she didn't notice my surprised facial expression. I was at a loss for words. I knew that she had been married before Carlisle, but I just assumed that they never tried for a child, which made this news kind of shocking.

"I... I'm sorry." I said softly. "I didn't know that. I just thought... you know, you and that guy didn't want any kids at the time." I walked over to her, and sat down. My armed reached out to wrap around her shoulders and comfort her.

She nodded. "I did. Charles didn't. I guess he got what he wanted in the end though. The baby died a couple of days after he was born, due to a lung infection." She looked up at me and gave me a weak smile, trying to lighten the atmosphere in the room, though it didn't really work, seeing as it was still tense.

"I was completely crushed and devastated. I didn't know it was possible to feel that much pain in one lifetime, but it was. That one little baby boy, whom I had only known for a short time, was my entire world. Without him, I didn't want to exist either; I didn't see the point anymore. And that's what I tried to do. _I tried to commit suicide_." She spoke the last sentence so quietly that I barely heard her at all.

By this time, my eyes completely bugged out of my head and I knew my mouth was opening and closing so much that I probably looked like a freaking fish.

_Why hadn't I known any of this before?_ I thought, but quickly answered my own question. It was her story to tell, and obviously I wasn't ready to hear it before now.

"I'm sorry." I repeated, not really knowing what to say. I've always been pretty bad at comforting hurting people. I would always just stand there and look at them and asked if they were okay, which was the dumbest question ever, seeing as they were probably crying or sniffling or something. I ran my hand up and down her arm, in what I hoped was a comforting gesture, praying it made her feel at least a little better.

Her eyes were aloof and vacant, like she mentally went back in time to relive the memory. "I jumped off of a cliff, and came so close to succeeding." She sighed sadly. "But alas, it didn't work. I was just on the brink of death. I felt like people in heaven were taunting me, like they were punishing me for whatever reason by keeping me alive. But just barely because my heart beat was very, very faint. They took me to the hospital, though I'm sure some argued that it would have been better to just take me to the morgue."

A chill ran up my spine when she mentioned a morgue, causing me to shiver. "They took me to Carlisle, and somehow he was able to bring me back." She smiled and her eyes came back to life, as if she was resurfacing. "I wanted to hate Carlisle so much. With every fiber of my being, I wanted to hate him. I really, really did. But I just... couldn't. He saved my life, my soul, and my heart. He made me look at life as something worth living again. And for that, I'll be forever grateful. I love him so much, and sometimes I wonder if I deserve him."

_Wow... just when you think you know a person..._ I thought.

"Of course you do." I whispered.

Esme was at a low point in her life, a point in which she thought she'd be forever unhappy. She even tried to just take herself out of the equation by attempting suicide. But everything worked out in the end because she had Carlisle. Carlisle really did save her. In more ways than one. Mentally, physically, emotionally. Now, she had a soul mate, and children who would always love her unconditionally. If things could end so well for her, than maybe they could end well for me too.

"Do you understand why I'm telling you all of this, Edward?" Esme asked me.

"I do. And thank you. You didn't have to tell me all of that." I hugged her, and stood up.

"Anytime. I'm always here for you Edward, I hope you know that. I'll leave now so you could get to school." And with that, she left my room, leaving me with my thoughts.

* * *

**A/N: Here's a little Edward and Esme moment. Thanks to Twilight Saga Wiki, which is where I got most of Esme's background from. Sorry it was so short, but hopefully the next chapter will be much longer.**


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